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DIARY OF A JOURNEY 



THROUGH 



MONGOLIA AND Tibet 



IN 



1891 AND 1892 



BY x"^ 

WILLIAM WOODVILLE ROCKHILL 

Gold Medalist of the Royal Geographical Society 



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CITY OF WASHINGTON 

PUBLISHED BY THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 

1894 



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PRINTED FOR THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 

BY W. F. ROBERTS, WASHINGTON 

1894 



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ADVERTISEMENT. 



The journey described in this volume was undertaken by 
Mr. Rockhill partly under the auspices of the Smithsonian In- 
stitution, and the work is issued as a special publication of 
the Institution, with the general object of "increasing and 
diffusing knowledge" in regard to the little known countries 

traversed by the explorer. 

S. P. LANGLEY, 
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. 



in 



, 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

List of Illustrations vi 

Illustrations in the Text vii 

Introductory Notice ~ „ ix 

Part I . » 
From Peking through Mongolia to Kumbum i 

Part II. 
Salar pa-kun. Kuei-te. Koko nor. Ts'aidam 73 

Part III. 
From the Naichi gol to Namru de, near the Tengri nor.. i8i 

Part IV. 
From Namru to Ch'amdo 233 

Part V. 
Draya. Mar-K'ams. Bat'ang. Lit'ang. Chala 319 

Appendixes. 

Appendix I . Salar Vocabulary 373 

Appendix 1 1 . San-Ch'uan T'u-jen Vocabulary 377 

Appendix III. Plants of Tibet 380 

Appendix I V . Table of Latitudes, Altitudes, etc 386 

Appendix V . Mean Monthly Temperature -. 396 

General Index 397 



ILLUSTRATIONS— PLATES. 



Boots — to face p, 14 

hsi-kung miao — kumbum 26 

Pat-ma SsO ~ - - 64 

Salar Woman : 80 

Cooking Utensils 96 

Pack-saddles - 108 

Su-CHiA Panaka ~ 112 

BoNBO Lamas — Panaka Camp ^ 132 

Mongols of Shang 148 

Ts' aidam Mongols 1 64 

Spear — Matchlock 170 

Accoutrements 182 

Saddle — Hobbles, etc -. 192 

Butter-boxes — Pail — — 204 

Hats — Caps — 2 1 6 

Drupa Tibetans 232 

Tea Churns - 256 

Jyade Woman's Headdress 266 

Crossing Su ch'u 272 

Tea-pots — Bowl 280 

Riwoch'e 300 

Mountains near Neda — Sung-lo zamba 304 

Bullet-pouch — Belt, etc 3 1 2 

Draya — Temple near Bat'ang 324 

Belt, Knife, Tinder-pouch, etc 344 

Lamaya — Lit'ang Golo 352 

Tower at Bagolo — 364 

Route Map of Explorations 372 

vi 



ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT. 



Spindle of Ordos Mongols - page 22 

Lama's Water-bottle - 30 

Sheath-knife of Panaka 104 

Plan of Panaka Cooking-stove and Tent 123 

Spindle of Panaka _ 132 

Ear-ring - - 236 

Snuff-box » 242 

Sling _ 264 

Padlock 281 

Tea-strainer ~ 292 

Tea-dasher — 306 

Jew's-Harp and Case 338 

Hoe 362 



Vll 



INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. 



As far as my knowledge goes, the first European traveler who 
entered Tibet was Friar Odoric, who, conning from Northwestern 
China, traversed Central Tibet on his way to India in or about 
1325, and sojourned some time in its capital, Lh'asa. The infor- 
mation he has left us of this country in his " Eastern Parts of the 
World Described,"* is, however, very meager and of no geo- 
graphical value. 

Three centuries elapsed before another Western traveler visited 
this country. In 1624 the Jesuit Antonio Andrada went from 
Agra to the sources of the Ganges and Sutlej, and thence through 
Western Tibet, to Kiria probably, whence he journeyed along the 
northern base of the Kun-lun to the Koko nor country, or 
Tangut, ultimately reaching China. f 

The next journey through Tibet was performed by Fathers 
Grueber and Dorville in 1661. They left Hsi-ning Fu in Kan-su 
and followed the highroad to Lh'asa by Nya-ch'uk'a and Reting 
gomba. After staying two months in Lh'asa, they pushed on to 
Nepaul by way of the Kuti la. Grueber's narrative contains 
much valuable information on Tibet, its people, their customs 
and religion. J 

In 1716 the Jesuit Fathers Desideri and Freyre reached Lh'asa, 
coming from Sikkim, and remained there until 1729. In 1719 

* Published in Col. H. Yule's Cathay and the Way Thither, 1, pp. 1-162. 

f See Peron et Billecocq, Recueil de Voyages du Tibet. 

X Published in Thevenot's Relations, II, part iv. See also Clem. R. Markham, 
Narrative of the Mission of George Bogle and of the fourney of Thomas 
Manning, 295 et seq. This latter work has been constantly before me in writing 
these notes. 

ix 



INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. 



the Capuchin Francisco della Penna and twelve other members 
of his order also reached the capital of Tibet, and established a 
mission there which flourished until about 1760. While most of 
the information collected by Desideri still remains in manuscript, 
the letters of Orazio della Penna have been published several 
times and are of great value.* 

Of the journey to Tibet of the Dutchman Samuel van de Putte, 
in or about 1730, we know but little. He went to Lh'asa from 
India, and then traveled by the Hsi-ning road to Peking, return- 
ing again to Lh'asa and to India, and dying in Batavia in 1745.! 

In 1774 George Bogle was sent by Warren Hastings to 
Shigatse to try and open commercial relations with Tibet. The 
account of his journey has been published in 1879 by Mr. Clem- 
ents R. Markham. 

In 1783 Captain Samuel Turner also visited Shigatse, and on 
his return published a valuable account of his journey. J 

I pass over the work of Brian H. Hodgson, Dr. Campbell, Dr. 
Hooker, Alexander Cunningham, Wilson, Ashley Eden and others 
in Sikkim, Bhutan and the adjacent countries, as the field of their 
labors was in those parts of Tibet which are under British rule o,r 
influence. 

The next foreigner to visit Tibet and Lh'asa was the Englishman 
Thomas Manning, who traveled there vi& Pari djong and Gyantse 
djong in 181 1 returning to India by the same road in the early 
part of the following year. His fragmentary journal, published 
by Mr. Markham|| adds but little to our knowledge of the country 

*See Clem. R. Markham, op. sup. cit., pp. Iviii, 302 et seq., and for Orazio della 
Penna's Breve Notizia del Regno del Tibet, the same work, p. 309 et seq. Much 
valuable information derived from notes and letters written by the Jesuit and 
Capuchin fathers in Tibet may be found in Georgi's Alphabetum Tibetanum, 
published at Rome in 1762, i vol., 4°. 

f See Clem. R. Markham, op. cit., p. Ixii et seq. Also the letter of Pere Gaubil 
in Lettres edifiantes et curieuses (Pantheon litteraire edit.), IV, 60. 

XAn Account of an Embassy to the Court of the Teshoo Lama, i vol., 4°, 
1800. 

II Op. sup, cit., 213-294. 



INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. XI 

he traversed, but it is nevertheless of considerable value. In 1844 
the Lazarist fathers Hue and Gabet traversed the Ordos, Alashan, 
the Koko nor and the Ts'aidam, and following the highroad 
which passes by Nya-ch'uk'a, reached Lh'asa in 1846. Here they 
stayed a few months when they were expelled by the Chinese 
Amban and conducted to Ta-chien-lu in Ssu-ch'uan by the high- 
road which goes through Ch'amdo, Draya, Bat'ang, and Ho-k'ou.* 
On their way to Lh'asa they followed the road which in 1661 had 
been gone over by Father Grueber, and which more recently 
has been explored by the Russian traveler Nicholas Prjevalsky, as 
far at least as the frontier post of Nya-ch'uk'a. 

Between the time of Hue's adventuresome journey and that of 
Col. Prjevalsky in i87o-'7i, no foreigners, as far as I am aware, 
entered Tibet. After exploring the Tibetan country around the 
Koko nor, Prjevalsky pushed on along the highroad to Lh'asa as 
far as the Dre ch'u, a point which may be considered as in Tibet 
proper, though politically speaking it is in a no-man's-land. f 

In 1879 the indefatigable Prjevalsky undertook a second expedi- 
tion into Tibet with the avowed object of reaching Lh'asa. Coming 
from the Ts'aidam he followed the highroad to Lh'asa, and got as 
near the capital as Nya-ch'uk'a. Here he was stopped and forced 
to retrace his steps. In this expedition he also explored consider- 
able country south of the Koko nor, an unknown region inhabited 
by the predatory Tibetan Kamb'a and Golok. J During Prjevalsky's 
fourth and last expedition into Central Asia he visited in 1887 a 
small section of Tibetan country between southern Ts'aidam and 
the Dre ch'u and inhabited by K'amba pastoral tribes. 1| In 1889 
1 followed this route myself, and coming to the Dre ch'u a little 
below where Prjevalsky reached that river, I crossed it and after- 

*See Souvenirs d'un voyage dans la Tartarie et le Thibet, 2 vol. 12°. 
f See Mongolia, the Tangut Country, 2 vols., 8°, 1876. 

I See his Tretye puteshestvie v Centralnoi Asii, 4°, 1883. 

II See his Ot Kiachtii na istoki joltoi reki, etc., 4°, 1888. 



XII INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. 

wards traversed a considerable section of Eastern Tibet, ultimately 
re-entering China at Ta-chien-lu in the summer of the same year.* 

Ta-chien-lu in Ssu-ch'uan is the frontier town on the highroad 
connectmg Western China with Central Tibet, and through it pass 
nearly all the caravans going to or coming from Lh'asa.f Explorers 
have repeatedly endeavored to enter Tibet from this point, and it 
has been the basis of the operation of the Catholic missionaries in 
Tibet ever since about 1858. 

In 1868 the Englishman T. T. Cooper entered Tibet from 
Ta-chien-lu in an attempt to reach India, and pushed on as far as 
Bat'ang where he was stopped and obliged ultimately to retrace 
his steps, after traveling some distance southward. J In 1877 Capt. 
Wm. Gill, R. E., also reached Bat'ang from Ta-chien-lu, but he 
also was turned southward at that point, and so went to Yun-nan 
and Burmah.|| The same fate overtook in 1880 the Hungarian 
Count Bela Szechenyi and his well-organized expedition, with 
which he wanted to go to Lh'asa.§ 

The French missionaries operating in the Tibetan borderland 
have been fairly successful since they opened their mission at 
Bonga in 1854. On one occasion they reached Ch'amdo, and at 
Gart'ok they were allowed by the Lh'asan authorities to open 
a station for a short time, while in Bat'ang and the country south 
of it, they have maintained themselves with varying fortunes 
down to the present day.l" 

The attempts made by Wilcox in 1826, by Dr. Griffiths in 1836, 
by I'Abbe Krick in 1852, by T. T. Cooper in 1870, and by Mr. 

* Set Land 0/ the Lamas, 8°, 1891. 

f The much older and easier road between China and Lh'asa is the Hsi-ning — 
Ts'aidam one, but since the breaking out of the Dzungan rebellion in the sixties, 
the Chinese government have kept it closed as much as they could. Nearly every 
year the Lh'asa or Trashilhunpo people ask to be allowed to send their tribute 
missions over it, but they are invariably refused. 

X Travels of a Pioneer of Commerce, 8°, 1871, 

II See The River of Golden Sands, 2 vols., 8°, 1880. 

§See Lieut. Kreitner's /w/^r«^» Osten, 8°, 1882. 

Tf See Le Thibet d'apris la correspondence des missionnaries, par C. H. Des- 
godins, 8°, 1885. 



INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. XIU 

Needham in 1885, to enter Tibet from the south, all met with 
failure, and the country between the Assam frontier and the 
Lh'asa — Ta-chien-lu highroad is still the least known of all Tibet, 
though perhaps the most interesting. 

The last three explorations into Tibet, all of which have met 
with comparative success, have been undertaken from the north 
and northwest. In 1889 the French traveler Bonvalot, following 
a trail sometimes used by the Torgot Mongols, coming from the 
Lob nor, managed to reach the Tengri nor. There he was stopped 
and forced to go eastward by a route parallel to the Lh'asa — Ta- 
chien-lu highroad as far as Gart'ok, from which town to Ta-chien- 
lu he followed the highroad itself* The country traversed by this 
explorer between the Lob nor basin and the Tengri nor was abso- 
lutely unknown to us, as was also that part lying between the 
Tengri nor and Gart'ok, and his journey has added very consider- 
ably to our knowledge concerning one of the least known 
portions of Tibet. 

In i89o-'9i Capt. Henry Bower, of the 17th Bengal Cavalry, trav- 
ersed the whole of Tibet from west to east, his road, as far as north 
of the Tengri nor lying over the nearly desert plateau known as 
the "Northern plateau " or Chang fang, another portion of which 
had been explored the year before by Bonvalot. f Bower like 
Bonvalot was stopped near the Tengri nor, and forced to follow 
practically the same trail that traveler had taken all the way to 
China, 

The diary published in the present volume was kept during my 
second journey in Tibet in the years iSgi-'ga. It will, I hope, 
help to extend our knowledge of the country previously explored 
by Bonvalot and Bower, my route in many places running parallel 
to theirs, and for a considerable distance being the same as the 
one they followed. It also contains my researches in other 
sections of the country until then entirely unexplored. 

*See De Paris au Tonkin d, travers le Tibet inconnu, i vol., 8°, 1892. 
\ See Diary of a Journey Across Tibet, 8°, 1893. 



XIV IN TROD UCTOR Y NO TICE. 

Summarizing what has been said in the preceding remarks 
we see that the highroad between Hsi-ning and Lh'asa has been 
followed, over a portion or the whole of its length, by Odoric 
de Pordenone, by Fathers Grueber and Dorville, by Samuel van 
de Putte, by Hue and Gabet and by Prjevalsky. 

The Lh'asa — Ta-chien-lu road has been gone over by Hue and 
Gabet, and along a portion of its length by a number of the French 
missionaries since 1861, also by Cooper, Gill, Szechenyi, Bonvalot, 
Bower and myself. 

The various roads between Nepaul, or Sikkim and Central 
Tibet have been traveled over by the Franciscan monk Odoric in 
the 14th century, by the Jesuit and Capuchin fathers in the 17th 
and i8th, and also by Bogle, Turner and Manning. 

The high plateau {Chang fang) of Northern Tibet has been 
traversed along four lines: by Prjevalsky and myself at its eastern 
extremity; by Prjevalsky and the other travelers who have gone 
over the Hsi-ning — Lh'asa road, at about four degrees of longitude 
west of the preceding line; by Bonvalot and myself in its great- 
est width from north to south; and finally by Bower in its 
greatest length from west to east. 

The above embraces practically all the explorations made by 
foreigners in Great Tibet down to the present day. 

In the preceding remarks I have made no mention of one of 
our most valuable sources of information concerning Tibet, I 
refer to the work of the native explorers sent to Tibet and 
other trans-Himalayan countries by the Great Trigonometrical 
Survey of India. The plan of training natives for scientific 
geographical work and sending them beyond the Indian frontier 
to countries closed to Europeans was inaugurated by Col. T. G. 
Montgomerie some twenty-five or thirty years ago. By this 
means those portions of Tibet which lie to the north of Nepaul 
and Sikkim, and to the east of Kashmir, and also, to a less extent, 
Bhutan, have been carefully surveyed. Some of these explorers, 
especially Nain Singh (Pundit A ), Kishen Singh or A 



INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. XV 

K , and Lama Ugyen jyats'o, have traversed the whole of 

Tibet from south to north and from west to east. Lh'asa, Shigatse 
and most of the important towns and all the adjacent country of 
Central and Western Tibet have been carefully surveyed, and of 
Lh'asa especially, we now know through them the most minute 
topographical detail.* But while these native explorers are most 
admirable surveyors, they are not well-trained observers, and 
details of great value, both ethnological and even geographical, 
often escape their attention, while the most puerile and unimport- 
ant story or legend is often recorded by them in the most careful 
and prolix way. 

The roads leading from Lh'asa to Hsi-ning and to Ta-chien-lu 
have been gone over by Kishen Singh, Nain Singh has traversed 
the Ch'ang fang from west to east along a line a little to the 
south of Bower's, the road I followed in 1889 through Eastern 
Tibet had been previously explored, in 1881, by Kishen Singh, 
and what little we know of Southern Tibet is from native 
explorers' travels and reports. Notwithstanding this, the work of 
the European travelers who have explored these same routes has 
not been lost, the information they have collected would have 
escaped the attention of Asiatic explorers, no matter how many 
had gone over the road before them. 

Another valuable source of information concerning Tibet which 
must not be overlooked, is Chinese literature. Since the middle 
of the seventeenth century, when Chinese intercourse with Tibet 
took a sudden and wide expansion, travelers of that nation have 
composed a number of guide-books, mostly concerned with the 

* See especially on this work Report on the Explorations made in Sikkim, 
Bhutan and Tibet from 18^6 to 1886. Report on the Explorations in Great 

Tibet and Mongolia, made by A K in i87g-'82. Narrative of a 

Journey to Lh'asa in 1881-82, by Sarat Chandra Das. Narrative of a Journey 
Round Lake Yamdo (Palti) in 1882, by the same; and also A Memoir on the 
Indian Surveys, by Clements R. Markham, 148 et seq., and A Memoir on the 

India Surveys, 1875-1890, by Charles E. D. Black, 151-165. A K has 

made a map of the city of Lh'asa on a scale of four inches to the mile. 



XVI INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. 

highroads through Tibet, though some of them give valuable in- 
formation relating to little-known trails. Not a few of these 
books contain much valuable information bearing on the trade, 
climate, history, products, industries and other resources of the 
various districts to which they refer.* Besides these works, each 
of the various Chinese dynastic histories contains chapters on 
the history, geography and ethnography of Tibet during the dif- 
ferent periods to which each relates. 

A large portion of the information contained in these two classes 
of Chinese works I have translated or condensed and published in 
the "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society." The data they sup- 
plied me were found of the greatest value during my several 
journeys in Tibet, even when, as in the case of the road between 
Ch'amdo and Nya-ch'uk'a followed by Bonvalot, Bower and my- 
self, and which is given in these translations (p. 86), only a very 
few of the names were known in the country at the present day. 

The journey which I undertook in 1888-89, some of the results 
of which I have published in "The Land of the Lamas," en- 
couraged me to believe that I could, if I undertook a second 
journey into Tibet, add considerably to our knowledge of that 
remote region ; and so, when 1 had worked up the results of my 
first journey, I determined upon once more visiting Mongolia and 
Tibet, and endeavoring to traverse the latter country from north- 
east to southwest, or in other words to try and reach Nepaul or 
Sikkim from the Chinese province of Kan-su. 

I had learned during my first journey that in that portion of 
Tibet which is under the rule of Lh'asa, opposition to foreigners 
was much more violent than elsewhere, so I endeavored in this 
journey to steer clear of Lh'asa, but various circumstances, which 
will be found related in my Diary, and over which I had no 
control, turned me from the path 1 had intended to follow, and so, 
when not over thirty or forty miles from the Tengri nor, and less 

*For a list of the most important of this class of works on Tibet, %et Journal 
Royal Asiatic Society, new series, XXIII, pp. 3 and 4. 



INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. xvil 

than a month's travel from British India, and when at very nearly 
the same spot at which Bonvalot and Bower had been stopped, 
my further progress southward was arrested by the Tibetans, and 
I was forced to turn my face eastward. 

The remainder of my journey was not through country 
absolutely unknown, for my route frequently crossed and some- 
times coincided with those of Bonvalot and Bower, and from 
Ch'amdo to Ta-chien-lu 1 followed the route taken in 1861 by 
Monseigneur Thomine Desmazures, and more recently by Captain 
Bower, but notwithstanding this, I believe that I have been able 
to collect, even during this portion of my journey, thanks to my 
knowledge of the Tibetan and Chinese languages, not a few data 
which will prove of interest and of possible value to future 
explorers. 

Of Southern Mongolia and Western Kan-su, through which 
the first part of my journey took me, we really know less than of 
Tibet, for our sources of information on this section of Mongolia 
are confined to the letters and other writings of the Jesuits who 
resided in Peking in the 17th and i8th centuries, to Hue's charm- 
ing but rather romantic " Souvenirs," and to Prjevalsky's first 
journey, and, as regards the Koko-nor country and Western 
Kan-su, to Prjevalsky's works and to what little has been so far 
published of Potanin's papers. 

Regarding the method followed in preparing the sketch 
route-map accompanying this volume, the original was made 
on a scale of four statute miles to the inch, and the instruments 
used were a prismatic compass, an aneroid and a six-inch sex- 
tant. In the first part of the survey, between Kalgan and Kuei- 
te in Kan-su, I passed through several localities whose positions 
had been determined, with more or less exactitude, by the Jesuits in 
the 17th century, and more recently by Prjevalsky, and my observa- 
tions agree fairly well with theirs. In the second and less known 
half of my journey my traverse, wherever it crosses that made by 
Bower, shows a close agreement with his in latitude for points 



XVIU INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. 

situated along it, and a fairly good one for longitude. On the 
whole 1 consider the results of this long and hasty survey of over 
3,400 miles as satisfactory and fairly accurate, but it is nothing more 
than its name implies — a rough preliminary sketch of a nearly 
unknown region. Numerous observations for time and latitude, 
and for altitude, by the boiling point of water and from aneroid 
readings, were taken during the whole length of the journey. 
The instruments with which these latter observations were made 
were corrected before and after the journey at the United States 
Weather Bureau at Washington, and the altitudes deduced have 
also, through the kindness of Professor Mark W. Harrington, Chief 
of the Bureau, been calculated there. They show, wherever 
comparisons are possible, a fairly close agreement with those taken 
by my predecessors, as an examination of the table in the appendix 
will demonstrate. 

Meteorological observations for temperature, pressure, cloudi- 
ness, wind, etc., etc., were taken three tim.es daily, at 7 a.m., 2 p.m. 
and 7 p. M. ; I have given in an appendix a table showing the 
mean monthly temperature at these three hours from January ist, 
1892, to October ist of the same year, the date at which I reached 
Ta-chien-lu in Ssu-ch'uan. 

The illustrations accompanying this volume are either reproduc- 
tions of photographs taken during the journey, or drawings of 
objects brought back by me, most of which now belong to the 
United States National Museum. 

As to the transcription of Chinese words, 1 have followed the 
system of Sir Thomas Wade, in which the sounds are given 
according to the Peking pronunciation. In transcribing Tibetan 
I have, as in my previous work, applied as nearly as possible 
Wade's system, while adhering to the native spelling and the 
Lh'asa pronunciation, as far as phonetic spelling would admit. 
The only sound to which I need call attention is that of 5, which 
is the French eu, as in "peu," thus Ponboisto be pronounced as 
if written Peunbo, Bonbo as if it were Beunbo, etc. ; in the writ- 



INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. XIX 

ten language of Tibet all these words are written with an o, 
Dpon-po, Bon-po. The acute accent is used, in accordance with 
the suggestion made in that invaluable book, " Hints to Travellers," 
to show the emphasized syllable, not to change the sound of the 
vowel over which it is placed. In transcribing Mongol, I have 
followed a purely phonetic system, giving, as a general thing, 
the sound of the words according to the western or Kalmuk 
pronunciation with which alone 1 am at all familiar. 

The reader's indulgence is asked for some apparent inconsisten- 
cies in my transcription of foreign words; they result either from 
negligence on my part or from over-anxiousness to make the cor- 
rect pronunciation perfectly clear without lengthy explanations. 

The form in which I now publish the results of my journey 
was only adopted after much hesitation, as 1 feared it might prove 
tedious to even the enthusiastic reader of books of travel — if such 
happily there still be. But a journal, kept from day to day, and 
often under great difificulties shows better, I think, than any other 
form of reford the true impressions of the writer, his moods, his 
hopes, his anxieties, even when they concern nothing more im- 
portant than his next meal, of which 1 am, however, assured the 
public likes to be informed. In such a Diary as is here given 
numerous glaring errors in style — if nothing worse — tedious detail 
and monotonous repetition cannot fail to confront the too critical 
reader, but let him be charitable — dirt, cold, starvation and a 
thousand minor discomforts which beset the explorer in Mongolia 
and Tibet who lives and travels like the barbarous inhabitants of 
those wild regions, are not conducive to sustained or successful 
literary work, as he may find out for himself if he will but try it. 

It gives me great pleasure to acknowledge here my high 
appreciation of the deep interest which my friend General James 
H. Wilson has always taken in my explorations in Tibet since 
the days when we first talked over my plans in China, and of the 
many services which he has rendered me in connection with them. 
My acknowledgments are also due to Mr. Charles E. Dana, Mr. 



XX INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. 

E. R. Bacon, Mr. J. B. Houston and Mr. J. H. Schiff, all of New 
York, who assisted and encouraged me in my undertaking. 

To Mr. S. P. Langley, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 
without whose generous interest in my work this volume would 
probably never have been published, and to my numerous friends 
in the Smithsonian and the United States National Museum, I am 
under lasting obligations which I can never forget nor adequately 
acknowledge. 

William Woodville Rockhill. 

Department of State, 
Washington, December 14, 1894. 



JOURNEY 
THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET 



MONGOLIA AND Tibet 



DIARY OF A JOURNEY 
1891-92. 



By WILLIAM WOODVILLE ROCKHILL. 



PART I. 
From Peking Through Mongolia to Kumbum. 



PEKING. — November 30, i8gi. — I received to-day my pass- 
port from the Tsung-li Yamen. It is what we would call 
at home a ' ' special passport, " authorizing me as former Sec- 
retary of the United States Legation to visit Kan-su, Ssu-ch'uan, 
Yiin-nan, Hsin-chiang (the New Dominion), and the Ching-hai, or 
the Mongol and Tibetan country under the administrative control 
of the Hsi-ning Amban. This opens the road to Lh'asa for me as 
far as Drech'u rabden and consequently Nagch'uk'a, for there 
are no inhabitants, only an occasional band of roaming K'amba 
before reaching the latter point. 

I have two drafts on a Shan-hsi bank at Kuei-hua Ch'eng for 
1 103.31 taels, and I carry 172.56 taels in sycee. I will draw an 
additional 700 taels on reaching Lan-chou Fu in Kan-su. This and 
the goods I carry with me will have to do for the journey — a year 
or more. 

We hear many rumors about the rebels up Jehol way. It is said 
here that they have crossed the Great Wall and are marching on 
Peking. There is no doubt that five hundred desperate men, 



2 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

willing to sacrifice their lives, could capture Peking by a coup de 
main, for there is only the Peking field force (Shen-cKi ying) to 
defend it, which, as a Chinese general remarked a few years ago to 
the Seventh Prince, who is the chief of this body, is more expert 
with the opium pipe {^yen chiang) than with the musket {yang 
Chiang^. This little rebellion is a specimen of what frequently occurs 
on the northern and southwestern frontiers of China. One day a 
chief of a band of highwaymen (ma-isei) gave in his submission 
to the government and made himself so agreeable that he was after 
awhile given official preferment. His band, for the sake of economy 
probably, retained his name on their banners and kept to the 
road. This caused the Jehol officials to believe that the ex-chief, 
Li, I think he was named, was still connected with the profession, 
so he was arrested, tried, and beheaded. His son, to avenge his 
sire, joined the band, dubbed himself Ping Ch'ing Wang ("The 
Prince leveler of the Ch'ing dynasty"), and announced on his 
banners that his platform was "First, right {li), then reason {tao), 
to put an end to the Catholic {fien chu) faith, to bring down the 
reigning dynasty, and to destroy the hairy foreigners." A pretty 
pretentious scheme for a few hundred men. They are more or 
less connected with a secret society called the Tsai huei, a kind of 
northern Ko-lao huei, and some people here tell me they are called 
Hung mao-tzu ("red haired") because they put on false beards 
of red hair in their secret conclaves. At all events they are very 
probably well armed, with Winchester rifles, 1 believe, supplied 
them by an enterprising foreign firm at Newchwang. Li Hung- 
chang is said to be sending troops from around Tientsin to the 
disturbed district, and soon the rebel band will disperse and the 
imperial forces will announce a glorious victory and the condign 
punishment of the guilty ones.* 

December i. — I hired two carts to take me and my boy to 
Kuei-hua Ch'eng, via Kalgan and the Ts'ao-ti, they were to be at 
the house by daylight to-day, but it was eight o'clock before we 

* This revolt was naturally crushed with enormous loss of life to the rebels, if we 
are to believe the memorial of the military commissioner for Manchuria, Ting An, 
published in the Peking Gazette of December ii, 1891. According to this document 
the rebels must have numbered from four to five thousand. See Imperial decrees, 
December 6 and 12, 1891, in For. Rel. of the United States, 1892, pp. 77 and 80. 
Kuo Wan-chang appears to be the name of the rebel leader and Chi Yao-shih that of 
the person made Prince by the rebel bands. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 



got off, and ten before we left the inn outside the Te-shih men 
where the cart office {ch'ehang) is located. The carts are drawn 
by played-out ponies and bare-boned mules, three, in one, two in 
the other. I expostulated on the miserable condition of the teams, 
but the chang-kuei-ti insisted that they were wonderfully strong 
animals though perhaps a bit rough looking. The drivers are 
good natured Shan-hsi men from Ta-t'ung and do not know what 
hurry means, and it is for this reason that Shan-hsi teams are not 
in favor with the Pekinese public. 

We jogged along very leisurely to Ching ho (i8 li from the 
Te-shih men), and towards nightfall reached Chang-ping Chou, 
where 1 witnessed a magistrate coming to a man's domicile (the 
inn in which 1 was stopping) to administer justice (in the form 
of a volley of smacks on the face) to a tradesman who had tried 
to cheat the inn-keeper. And we want to teach the Chinese our 
methods of procedure ! Can anything be more expeditious and 
inexpensive than this ? 

December 2. — We left in the middle of the night and made 
Nan-k'ou by 9 a. m., passing endless strings of camels, the big 
bells around their necks sounding very dismally in the stillness of 
the night. They were coming down by thousands from the 
pasturages north of Kalgan to be used in the Peking coal trade and 
the Kalgan — Tung-chou tea-carrying business; some also were 
loaded with wool, hides, camel's hair, and led by Mongols now 
on their annual visit to the Capital. 

The road up the pass has, since last I saw it in 1888, been 
wonderfully improved, and is now in really excellent order for 
cart travel and I don't begrudge the little toll I have to pay at 
Chu-yung kuan. At this latter place 1 noticed that the inscriptions 
in the famous gateway are no longer as distinct as when last I 
examined them. Proclamations and advertisements have been 
pasted over them for such a long time and in such quantities that 
the surface of the stone on the inscribed portions has at last 
become considerably defaced. Why have so few studied these 
curious inscriptions? The Kitan and Niu-chih versions are 
priceless. I heard Dr. Bushell* say once that he had devoted 

*Dr. Bushell has been for the last twenty-seven years physician to H. B. M.'s 
Legation at Peking. His thorough knowledge of things Chinese is too well known 
to necessitate any further reference to it here. 



4 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

considerable study to them. It's a thousand pities he does not 
give us the results of his researches, they would certainly be 
very valuable — all he has ever done is so very good. The bas- 
reliefs on the faces of the gateway also merit careful study. We 
reached Ch'a-tao by 5 p. M. in a violent northwesterly gale. Ever 
since leaving Peking the sky has been getting redder, a sure 
forerunner of the present storm which will probably last three 
days. 

December 3. — We left Ch'a-tao in a fearful northwest gale; it 
was bitterly cold, and so dusty that we several times strayed from 
the road. The gravel was blown with such violence that it cut our 
faces like the lash of a whip, and the cold made the tears course 
down our cheeks. We stopped for lunch at Huai-lai Hsien, and 
reached by dark Tu-mu where we found a good inn and a well 
heated k'ang. The night was beautifully clear but the wind con- 
tinued blowing with such fury that I could not take any sextant 
observations. The inn-keeper told me that about thirty thousand 
camel loads of tea are taken up every year over this road to Kalgan 
from Tung-chou. A camel load is paid 17 taels from Tung-chou 
to Ta-kuren (Urga). 

December 4.. — Got off late as we had the first casualty of the 
journey in our party. The black mule is dead ! The kicker and 
most disorderly member of the party is no more. Before he had 
breathed his last, his carcass was sold for $2, his tail cut off to 
show the owner on the carter's arrival at home, and his body 
carried off by the natives who were licking their chops over the 
anticipated feast. Our loss did not effect our rate of speed, except 
perhaps that it was slightly better, for we made twenty miles to 
Ch*i-ming-i. The day was pleasant but the road horribly stony, 
limestone pebbles, and such jolting as I never experienced. If 
ever I go over this road again I will take mule litters, they are 
much more convenient, and one travels just as rapidly as in a cart. 

December 5. — We jogged on leisurely to Hsuan-hua Fu, passing 
around the base of the famous Ch'i-ming shan on the top of which 
is a large temple said to have been transported there in the days 
of old by Liu-pan from Ch'ii-yung kuan where it had originally 
been built. A good deal of rather poor coal is dug out of this 
mountain, which appears to be mostly of friable sandstone and 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 5 

porphyritic rocks. The Hun ho, along whose right bank the road 
to Kalgan runs, is frozen so deep that we crossed it with the carts. 
At Hsuan-hua Fu we noticed the first signs of our proximity to 
the Jehol rebel bands. Little banners were stuck out of numerous 
houses to indicate the places of refuge for the inhabitants of the 
neighboring houses; and this is all that is done to protect a town 
of probably fifty thousand inhabitants against the brigands! 

December 6. — From Hsuan-hua Fu to near Kalgan the road is 
covered with drifted sand and loess, the walls of Hsuan-hua are 
half buried in it. Farmers with their carts are seen everywhere, 
even in the streets of the towns shovelling up the drifted dirt and 
carting it back to where it belongs — on their fields. Just outside 
the west gate of the city of Hsilan-hua we passed through a grove 
of gnarled poplars. Here in the fifth moon is celebrated the 
Liang-chuo-huei, "airing-the-feet-festival," when the women 
walk up and down dressed in their best and the men admire, 
criticise or condemn the shape and size of each one's feet. I have 
never heard of this feast being celebrated elsewhere in China, 
The Shan-hsi women (and Hsiian-hua is populated mostly by 
people from that province) are not over modest; they wear in 
summer a single upper garment or waistcoat {kan-chien) which 
leaves the breasts exposed to the view, another custom I have not 
met with elsewhere in China. 

We passed a great many camels carrying soda (chien) to Peking, 
in large blocks, about two and a half feet long. They probably 
came from the Ta-t'ung plain, as a great deal of soda is obtained 
by a very simple process there, some ten or fifteen miles south of 
the city, which 1 visited in i888. 

The weather remains hazy. A clear day is a rarity in these 
parts in the dry season. The mountains at a few miles distance 
are lost in the haze . The first part of the night is hazy and the 
atmosphere is only really clear just before and after dawn, the 
dust which constitutes the haze being precipitated by the moisture 
in the air, for there is a good deal of moisture in suspension even 
at this season of the year. 

December 7. — We reached Kalgan towards three o'clock and put 
up in an inn on the market street and facing the shrine of the god 
of wine, the pet deity of the place. I have numerous purchases 



6 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

to make here, among others a supply of mongol felt socks, Halha 
Russian leather boots, rugs in which to wrap up my boxes, buck- 
skin breeches, etc., etc. ; as to my tents I will purchase them at 
Kuei-hua Ch'eng. I found ponies dearer here than at the Te-shih 
men of Peking, for Mongols can easily take those they bring here 
back to their pasture lands, if they cannot get good prices, while 
at Peking they have to sell at any price. The people who came 
in the inn yard and saw me busy observing first the sun then the 
stars, inquired of the boy in subdued tones if any calamity was 
impending, if the rebels were about to attack the town. Ma 
Chih-pao reassured them and told them I was a worshiper of the 
pei't'ou (Ursa Major) and busy making out what my luck would 
be on my journey. 

December 8. — My boy says he is not afraid to accompany me 
anywhere, but I see that he has invested in an enormous sword 
marked with the ominous pei-Vou, a dragon and several soul- 
stirring mottoes, in lieu of the big cudgel he started out with. 

December p. — On the 20th of the eighth moon at the miao hueiox 
"temple fair" held here, several hundred ponies run, not races but 
to show their gait and speed. A Mongol refused this year 180 taels 
for a pony. Mongol ponies are branded as are ours in America. 
Lama miao is unquestionably the best place at which to buy 
ponies; west of that section of Mongolia they lose in size and 
speed, but possibly gain in staying powers. 

The name Kalgan is but a poor transcription of the Mongol 
word halha-* it means a " frontier mart." The people hereabout 
call Kuei-hua Ch'eng the Ch'eng, Hsuan-hua Fu they call Fu, 
just as those of Ta-chien-lu in Ssu-ch'uan call it Lu or Lu Ch'eng. 
This at all events has the merit, a considerable one in our estima- 
tion, of brevity. 

The people say no day is perfect here unless it blows hard 
duringa part of it. The climate, they add, is equable, which means, 
I fancy, that it blows every day in the year. Mr. Roberts, one of the 
American missionaries here, tells me he has seen (especially among 
the Manchus living here) quite a number of albinos. Persons 
with supplementary thumbs are also frequently met with here as 

* I transcribe this and all Mongol words phonetically and according to the Kalmuk 
pronunciation, the only one with which I am at all familiar. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 7 

in Peking. These are the most common abnormalities. There 
are three Mohammedan theological schools in Kalgan and they have 
a high standing in northern China, young men being sent here from 
remote quarters to study. The Mohammedans here do not seem 
however, to be as strict, in the usual observances prescribed to 
all believers, as those in western Kan-su. Thus some smoke opium, 
and it is commonly said that they are not averse to eating pork — 
if sold them under the name of mutton. The population of Kalgan 
is roughly estimated at between 75,000 and 100,000. 

December 10. — We left for Kuei-hua Ch'eng at seven o'clock, and 
followed up the river bed, which serves in the dry season as the 
principal street of the city, passing, just before leaving town, two 
small cages tied to the ends of poles and containing the heads of 
two lately executed highwaymen. The road was without interest, 
rocky and deep in loess dust. It is curious that loess even when, 
as here, it is not a subaerial deposit but has been brought down 
by the rains from higher levels, retains its characteristic vertical 
cleavage. 

Crossing a low range of hills west of the city, we passed by 
little Wan-chuan Hsien the prefectural city in whose district is 
Kalgan, and shortly after entered the valley of the Yang ho or Hsi 
("West") yang ho (the stream flowing by Wan-chuan Hsien 
being the Tung or "Eastern" Yang ho). Every mile or so we 
passed through villages around which were groves of willows, their 
long, crooked stems with only a tuft of small branches at the tops, 
adding little to the beauty of the surroundings. Basket making 
is one of the chief industries of this district and the river is pro- 
bably called Yang ho or "Willow River," from these numerous 
groves. 

December 11. — We lost our way; this is usual with Chinese 
carters and especially those of the Shan-hsi breed, who are pro- 
verbially stupid, and so we had to put up for the night at a village 
called Su-chia tsui a good deal to the north of the road. There 
was no inn, but we found lodgings in a farm house; the rooms 
were of the arched loess-cave-dwelling style common in north 
China, and are called \itXf3!oo\!X shen-hsien t'ungox "fairy caves," 
for these, like their prototypes, are warm in winter and cool in 
summer. The road followed up the river course in a due westerly 
direction. A violent west wind began to blow at 11 a. m. and 



8 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

SO dense was the dust during the rest of the day's travel that, as 
the way was long and we only reached an inn far in the night, 
we had to guide ourselves by the stars, for we could not make out 
the road under our feet. We tried to reach Hsin-ping k'ou (or 
Hsi-feng k'ou as it is called at Peking), a gate in the Great Wall, 
but had to stop a couple of miles east of it in a wayside inn, which 
class of houses are, by the way, usually larger and cleaner than 
those in towns or villages. 

December 12. — All the way up the Yang ho I noticed on the 
hill slopes on either side of the valley, truncated cone-shaped 
towers about thirty feet high with an encircling wall some ten 
feet in height. The people call them pao-tai or "gun towers" 
and say they were once used by the inhabitants to defend 
themselves against Mongol and Tartar raiders. They are too 
regularly separated and built with too little regard to neighboring 
villages, to have been solely for the purpose now claimed for 
them; they are on the other hand too near each other to have 
been watch towers, unless signals other than fire signals were used 
by the sentries. The explanation given me of their use is possible, 
though 1 have not seen any mention of such a system in China.* 
The Great Wall at Hsin-ping K'ou is entirely of earth, without 
any trace of brick or stone facing. The village at the gate is 
tolerably large, but much the worse for wear and sadly in lack of 
some repairs. 

Continuing up the valley to where it takes a southerly bend, 
we crossed a range of hills, and then by a very gradual descent, 
reached Ch'ang-k'ou, a big village of over six hundred families of 
Shan-hsi people and with a large number of inns. Coal is brought 
here from near Ta-t'ung Fu by way of Fu-ming Fu (or Feng 
Ch'eng as it is also called). The coal used at Kalgan comes also 
from the same locality by this apparently round-about way — 
probably to escape likin at some point or other along the road. 

At Ch'ang-k'ou the Lung wang ("the rain god") had been 
prayed to in vain ; first by the men, then the women, then the 
children . Even the Lao-yeh, the local official, had kotowed and 

* Conf. the remarks on these watch towers in the History of the Embassy of 
Shahrokh to the Emperor of China in 1419. (Thevenot, Relations II, Partxviii, 3.) 
These towers, it says, are of two kinds, the larger called Kidi/ous, the smaller 
Cargous. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 9 

burnt incense with much firing of crackers and beating of gong, 
but to no avail. The people told me they knew long ago the 
year would be disastrous for the sand grouse* had been more 
numerous of late than for years, and the saying goes, Sha-ch'i kuo, 
mailao-po, "when the sand grouse fly by, wives will be for sale." 

Ch'ang-k'ou is a place of considerable importance, as two roads 
from Kuei-hua meet here (or rather two miles west of here). 
One is called the ' ' inner road, " and passes by Lung-sheng chuang, 
Hou-tao-sha, Ge-ho-wa (pronounced in Pekinese Ai-ho-wa), 
Yung-shan chuang, Feng Ch'eng (orFu-ming Fu), Ma-chao ling, 
Ma-Wang miao, Tien-ch'eng ts'un, Han-ching ling, Ma-ka-tu, 
Sa-tei-go, Hsaio pa-tzu, Eu-Iing-trin (in Pekinese O-ling tan), 
Chahar (or Tsahan?) bolan, Ta-yu-shu, Shui-mo, Ku-lueh, 
Shih-rung-wa, Me-tar, Tieh-mung, To-ko-lang (in Mongol Tak- 
lang) and thence to Kuei-hua. The road I will follow crosses 
this one at Chahar polang, and falls into it at To-ko-lang. The 
first is 100 // (thirty-three miles) longer than that I have chosen, 
which is 780 li. 

I find that all the people hereabout, and even those of Kalgan, 
use the term Mantzu to designate the Chinese, in contradistinction 
to the Mongols. I had thought its use in this acceptation was 
confined to west Ssu-ch'uan and the Tibetan language, but I now 
find it has a much wider range. 

December ij. We only made a half day's march as I was 
anxious to make some solar observations for time. We stopped 
at a village on the border of the Chahar Mongol's pasture lands 
called Tsahan (or Chahan) obo, "the white obo," thus called 
from a large pile of stones {obo) on a hill near the village. Since 
leaving the Yang ho valley, tufa is the principal rock seen along 
the road. 

Around every village in this region willows are planted ; the 
Shan-hsi people are harder workers than the Chih-li Chinese, and 
they are much more agreeable to be thrown with, gay, polite, 
and not by any means as hot-headed as the latter. Physically 
they are very different, shorter of stature, with rounder faces and 
approaching more closely the southern Chinese type. 

* Hue, Souvenirs d'un voyage dans la Tartaric, I, 245, says these birds are 
called Lung chuo "Dragon's feet," 1 for my part have never heard any other 
name than jAa-f A'z " sand fowl," given them. This name is used however, for a 
variety of birds, among others the partridge, 



10 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

The year now ending has been a very bad one for all this border 
region, one small rainfall in the sixth moon; but these people bear 
their troubles with perfect composure. 

My boy is a great doctor, he carries a large supply of medicine 
— one a sovereign remedy for eye diseases, cataract disappearing 
rapidly by its use, and he has also a wonderful balm, curing not 
only wounds but every pain and ill to which poor humanity is 
subject. I have amused myself to-day watching him doctoring 
the people in the inn. It is lucky we are leaving early to-morrow, 
for should the medicine not have the desired effect, he and 1 might 
have the whole village down on us, though 1 must do the boy the 
justice to say he asks nothing for his drugs, he only wants "to do 
good " (tso haoshih). 

December i^. — A few miles west of Tsahan obo we crossed a 
low pass marked by eight <7^<? (three large and five small ones) and 
descended into the plain occupied by the yellow banner of the 
Chahar Mongols.* It is a circular depression of some thirty miles 
in diameter encircled by hills a few hundred feet high, and has 
been at no remote period a lake with an outlet to the northeast. A 
remnant of the lake remains in a pool called " Black Lake" (Hiri- 
nor) near the village of the No. 2 Ta-jen or Erh Ta-jen ying-tzu. 
The soil is partly alkaline, but good water is abundant in wells 
only a few feet deep. 

These Mongols live more like Chinese than any tribe 1 have 
visited, though I believe that around Jehol, and to the east of it, 
they are nearly indistinguishable from them. Many of the Chahar 
have small houses of Chinese style, and all the men wear the 
Chinese dress, as do many of the women, with the exception of 
the mode of dressing the hair which is of the national type — a long 
tress hanging down on either side of the face. They have also 
taken to smoking opium and have retained their national fondness 
for drink. 

We stopped for the night at a Mongol hamlet, near which was 
the residence of a chief and also a small lamasery, and put up in 
an inn with one small room in which were two big k'angs. My 
party had one of them as the other was already occupied by the 
inn-keeper, a tailoring lama, his face eaten up by some cancerous 

*0n the Chahar (or Chakhar) Mongols, see H. H. Howorth, History of the 
Mongols, I, 384 et seq. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. Ii 

disease, and a couple of little Mongol chiefs smoking opium. I 
paid for the use of the whole room and finally after a great deal of 
persuasion got the unpleasant neighbors out of it. Fortunately 
the night was very cold and the house but poorly heated so the 
vile odors which would have offended our nostrils in warmer 
weather were frozen up. 

December 15. — To-day has been bitterly cold, with a violent west 
wind blowing the dust down our throats. The road ascended 
gently and we passed now and then a solitary tree— ^probably 
Chinese enterprise had planted it. Crossing a low, stony pass 
we descended to Hu-Iu-shih-tai,* consisting of a couple of inns 
kept by very Chinesified Mongols. Thence we went to Shih-pa- 
erh-tai, another post station with four or five inns and as many 
dwelling houses. The rooms in the former consist mainly of two 
huge k'angs on each of which fifteen or twenty people can find 
accommodation, and between these k'angs, and on the level of the 
ground, is a big cooking stove on which two or three very large 
cast iron pans fit — one for water, the other for cooking food in. The 
fire is fed with dried manure and straw, and a big box-bellows keeps 
up the fiame. The stench in such a room, well filled with travel- 
ers — mostly carters — all eating, drinking, smoking opium, covered 
with the dirt of years and raising' with each movement the dust 
of ages and the microbes of cycles, is beyond description. 

The Mongols, I hear, begin shaving the heads of their male 
children at the age of three, f 

December 16. — The country we are now in is a tableland cut 
by low ranges of hills a few hundred feet high, but we see no 
running water anywhere. Tufa is the chief rocky formation 
visible. We stop for lunch at Kuei-yueh-t'u, consisting of two 
small, bleak mns kept by Mongols, who, like most of these Chahar, 
speak Chinese fluently. Some twelve miles west of this place we 
crossed higher hills, and after a sharp descent reached a broad 
valley dotted over with Chinese villages. Between us and the 
villages a low earth wall cut the valley — it marks the boundary 
of the lands ceded by the Chahar to the Chinese for agricultural 
purposes. 

* Probably the place called Houstai by Father Gerbillon, Duhalde, Description de 
V Empire de la Chine, IV, 347. 

t See also on other Mongol usages concerning mode of hair dressing, under date 
of April 25, 1892. 



\ 



12 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

Just before reaching Wu-li-pa ("5 li hill") I got a shot at a 
big wolf standing quietly near a cottage. At Wu-li-pa we found 
a very neat, large roomed inn where 1 was most hospitably treated. 
The Shan-hsi people are very kindly disposed, though not over 
bright, very inquisitive, with no manners, and confirmed opium 
smokers. The Shan-hsi women of all classes are remarkable 
among northern Chinese for the smallness and perfect forms 
(according to native standards) of their feet. 

December ly. — ^Crossing a low col a mile west of Wu-li-pa we 
came to Tsahan bolan ("White Stick "), the first large Chinese 
village we have seen since leaving Ch'ang-k'ou, but it looked 
unkempt, like all these places, with houses half dug in the loess 
cliffs and entirely made of mud and adobe bricks. 

The people all say that the land outside the border {k'ou wax) 
is much richer than any inside the Wall {k'ou net), hence the 
rapidity with which these pasture lands are being taken up by 
farmers. 

Freight is scarce, although we are now traveling on a high road 
— the Fu-ming Fu road joining the one we are following at Tsahan 
bolan; a few loads of goat skins, hides, camel's wool, and the 
like, is all we have seen going eastward. We passed several 
carts for Kalgan coming from Kuei-hua. They were flying 
the hang flags of Wilson & Co., of Tien-tsin, of Butterfield & Swire 
and a Russian firm of Kalgan, the name of which I could not 
make out. 

The hills on either side of the broad valley in which we traveled 
to-day were slightly steeper than those to the east, and were of 
igneous rock covered with loess. Before reaching Shih-jen-wan, 
where we stopped for the night, we passed through several miles 
of deep cuts in the loess. From Tsahan bolan to Shih-jen-wan 
we followed the course of a good sized stream, the headwaters 
of the Heiho or Hsiao Hei ho which flows by Kuei-hua Ch'eng, 
and empties into the Yellow River at Ho-k'ou. 

December 18. — The valley broadened beyond Shih-jen-wan, and 
after a few miles we saw the Ch'ing shan, a high and rugged 
range of mountains running nearly due west as far as the eye 
could reach. Between this range and the southern side of the 
valley — in places some three or four miles — the country was dotted 
over with villages, each in a little willow grove, and by each a 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 13 

rivulet flowed sluggishly along towards the Heiho, or a canal 
which carried a meagre supply of water from the river to remote 
sections of the plain. We saw large flocks of sheep and droves 
of camels pasturing about, all destined to supply the Peking and 
southern markets. We lunched at Taklang ("a crook, or bend 
in a river"), a small hamlet some ten miles from Kuei-hua, which 
latter place, or rather the New or Manchu town some 5 li east of 
it, came here in view. 

At three o'clock we made our entry into Kuei-hua, where we 
were led by inn-runners to a house said by them to be the best in the 
city, but which proved to be little better than a tumble down pig 
sty. Abbe Hue* relates in his delightful style a similar adven- 
ture which befell him on arriving at this famous place. 

In the New Town (Hsin Ch'eng) live some five thousand 
Manchu bannermen who are in receipt of a small monthly stipend 
from the government — the foot soldiers (J>u-ping') 3.0 taels a 
month, the mounted men {ma ping) 9 taels. They do nothing 
but smoke opium, gamble, hawk, and raise a few greyhounds, 
and are of no conceivable use. 

After driving about the town for quite a while in search of 
decent, quiet quarters, 1 chose at last a small inn where, at all 
events, I will get clean food, for it is kept by a Mohammedan 
who, however, has a bad reputation for "eating" people, 
in other words, making large commissions on all the purchases 
made by his guests. 

1 called on Dr. Stewart of the China Inland Mission. The 
Mission's medical work has been of incalculable value to China 
generally. The Chinese admire this philanthropic work, though 
it is quite beyond them to believe it disinterested; they think the 
missionaries have some personal motive impelling them to do this 
work, and in a certain sense they are right, for is it not said of 
those who go forth to preach the Word that surely they shall have 
their reward ? It matters little if it is in this world or another. 

December 20. — A Mohammedan from Ta-t'ung Fu called on me. 
He was a man of some literary pretentions among his people, and 
said that all Mohammedans in China are taught to read Arabic 
{eking tzii), but that he himself could only understand a few 
words of it. He spoke of the country in which is Mekka and 

*Huc, op. cit., I, 166 et seq. 



14 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

Medina as Farsi or Rum, artd stated that the capital of that Empire 
was Ta-erh-ko-erh (/. e., Stamboul). These Huei-huei hold 
themselves to be quite a distinct race from the ordinary Chinese. 
Their ancestors, this man said, had first come to China in the 
T'ang period and had married Chinese women. This foreign 
origin explained, he proudly remarked, their well known 
courage and characteristic pugnaciousness. They keep up some 
intercourse with the rest of Islam, though they have hardly 
any with the great Mohammedan section of the Empire (Turke- 
stan). Thus last year some Indian Mohammedans came 
here from Kashgar and went on to Kalgan and Peking.* They 
had been sent by the Church of India, to report on the state 
of the faith in China. There is hardly any direct trade between 
this place and Hami or Kashgar. Every year two or three traders 
from that country (Ch'an-t'ou, the Chinese call them) come here 
with raisins, dried melons and a few other products of no great 
value. What trade Turkestan has with China reaches Hsi-an Fu 
via Hsia-yu kuan and Hsi-ning or else by Pao-tu and across the 
Ordos country south of the Yellow River, but it is insignificant. 

Dr. Stewart, who called on me to-day, said syphylis is terribly 
prevalent here. The population he said is a floating one, and 
belongs to the dregs of society. The Chinese women here are 
quite as inveterate opium smokers as the men, and the whole 
population (some 100,000 to 120,000) is about as depraved a lot 
as can be found in China; it is entirely Chinese, the ground being, 
however, rented from the Tumed Mongols who are paid annually 
sums varying from ten to fifty cash a mou {]/(, acre). 

There is a Tao-t'ai here, also a Chiang-chun or General, and a 
Tu-t'ung who rules the Yo-mu or Herdmen tribes of Mongols, 
comprising all the Chahar, Bargu and Tumed tribes of the adjacent 
regions. t 

* In 1688 when Pere Gerbillon was at Kuei-hua in the suite of the Emperor K'ang-hsi 
he saw there " cinq vagabonds Indiens . . . ils se disoient de I'lndoustan et Gentils: 
ils etoient habillez a peu pres comma des Hermites, avec un grand manteau de telle 
de couleur isabelle deja vieille, et un capuchon qui s'elevoit un peu au dessus de leur 
tete." Duhalde, op. cit., IV, 105. Later on, in 1697, when he visited Ning- 
hia with the same Emperor he records that dried currants and raisins are brought there, 
also different colored serges, brought there by "les Marchands Mores que viennent 
du cote des Yusbeks, pour trafiquer a la Chine." Ibid, p. 372. The raisins and 
currants came, of course, from Hami. 

fSee on this subject W. F. Mayers, The Chinese Government (2d edit.), 86. 








1. Tibetan boot. Ked and black leather. 

(U. S. N. M. 107303.) 
3. Halha Mongol boot. Black, russian 

leather. (U. S. N. M. 167178.) 
5. Lama boot. Red russian leather, stitching 

in coloured silks. (U. S. N. M. 167179.) 



2. Tibetan boot. Cotton vamp, pulo leg. 
(U S. N. M. 1310i.5.) 

i. KOKO NOR LEATHER BOOT. (U. S. N. M. 

131072.) 
6. Ch'amdo BOOT. Black buck.skin. {U. S. 
N. M. 167177.) 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 15 

December 21. — I went out with Dr. Stewart to buy two tents 
and some camping utensils. Most of the day was spent haggling 
over prices, and I finally bought two blue cotton tents for 7.5 taels 
a piece. I also visited the big lama temple or Ta chao, a fine 
specimen of Sinico-tibetan work, and which has just been 
restored.* 

There is a Hsiao-chao here but I did not have time to visit it. 
The word chao is used on the Chinese frontier for "temple," 
though it is only the Tibetan word/t? meaning " Lord," and refers 
to the images of the Buddha said to have been made during the 
life time of the Buddha by sculptors who had seen his divine 
person, t There are three in existence, but wherever there are 
copies of the originals, as here, they are also called /(? or chao. 

Camels are quite cheap here ranging from 16 to 40 taels a head. 
A curious custom obtains here in buying these animals, which 
consists in counting 8.5 as 10 taels; thus a camel sold for 20 taels 
only costs in reality 17 taels. J This custom is called at Kuei-hua 
erh-pa-yin and at Peking pao ch'tao. The trade of this place con- 
sists in camels, sheep, sheepskin goods, goatskins and tallow. 
The quantity of the last article shipped to Peking for making 
candles is very great. I was told that some 3,000 or 4,000 sheep 
are killed here daily (in winter I suppose) principally for their 
tallow. 

There is no direct trade between here and Ning-hsia, and I can 
find no carters willing to take me there, for, they say, they will 
have to return with empty carts. They hardly ever go westward 
beyond Pao-tu. Lan-chou tobacco and other Kan-su products 
used here come from Hsi-an Fu via T'ai-yuan and Ta-t'ung or even 
via Peking. 

The name given on most of our maps to the range of mountains 
north of this place, In shan, is unknown here, everyone calls it 
Ch'ing (or Ta-ch'ing) shan, and 1 fancy that In is but a poor 
transcription of the sound Ch'ing. This name of Ch'ing shan 
applies to the range as far west as Pao-tu, beyond which place it 
is known as Wu-la shan for fifty miles or so, then as Lang-shan, 

* Gerbillon in 1688 and Hue in 1844 refer to the lamaries of Kuei-hua as the only 
remari<able edifices in the town. See Duhalde, op. cii., IV, 103 and Hue, op. cit., 
I. 185. 

f See my Land of the Lamas, 104-105. 

X See also February 10, 1892, and April 28, 1892. 



1 6 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

and finally as Ala shan.* The coal used here at Kuei-hua comes 
from Pao-tu or the neighborhood ; it is very impure but burns 
freely and is used in every house. 

December 22. — After a great deal of trouble I engaged to-day 
two carts to take me to Ning-hsia Fu via the route south of the 
Yellow River which passes through T'eng-kou and Shih-tsui-tzu ;t 
I have paid 55 taels for them, the drivers to provide themselves with 
provisions and feed for their mules. It is probably a good deal 
more than I should have paid, but I had no choice, no one else 
would go. 

Dr. Stewart told me (he has been living here four years) that 
the climate of Kuei-hua is good. The mountains naturally 
protect it from the prevailing northwest wind; the snow fall is 
very slight, in fact many winters there is none. The rainy season 
is from June to September. Grapes, apples, apricots and peaches 
are raised here, the grapes being specially fine. 

The peculiar haze seen throughout these regions has, during 
the few days 1 have been here, resolved itself every morning, 
when the sun was about two hours high, into thin, ragged clouds, 
which ascending have become a veil-like film, finally vanishing. 
Hence dust is not always the cause of this haze, though it unques- 
tionably frequently is. The cause of the haze is a question 
requiring time and long series of observations, which 1 can never 
hope to make ; some of the European residents here should take it 
up. 

December 2j. — The carters (not I) have decided that we will 
leave here the day after to-morrow. I have had to engage another 
servant to take the place of the one who had come with me from 
Peking and who has now worked himself ill through his anxiety 
to get out of the job of accompanying me. 1 have taken the 
cook of the inn, a bright young Mohammedan, a good cook but 
possibly a rascal. He is to receive as wages 7 taels a month. He 
is the only Arabic scholar 1 have seen in China, quotes whole 
surats of the Koran, though his accent, 1 am fain to admit, is 
peculiar; he is willing apparently to discuss every subject con- 

* Timkowski, Voyage d Peking, II, 265, 267, calls this range Khadjar Khosho 
01 Onghin oola, and Prjevalsky calls the Wula shan the Munni ula. 
t The route followed for most of the way by Hue and Gabet in 1844. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 17 

nected with his religion et qtcibusdam aliis, and is decidedly 
entertaining — when taken in small doses. 

The work of the missionaries here and elsewhere in China, for 
that matter, seems to me hopeless. Gratitude is, I believe, an 
unknown virtue among most Chinese, and the other Christian 
virtues have small room in their compositions. Dr. Stewart told 
me that frequently while administering medicine (gratuitously of 
course) to them, they have stolen bottles, books, and anything 
they could lay their hands on in his dispensary. The Chinese 
may admire the disinterestedness of the missionaries, but that 
does not convince them of the beauty of the faith which inspires 
such deeds. 

December 2^}.. — Chinese business methods at Kuei-hua Ch'eng 
are beautifully illustrated by what the inn-keeper has to-day 
undertaken to do. 1 engaged his cook to go with me on my 
wanderings and promised him fairly good wages. The Chang- 
kuei-ti saw at once a good chance to squeeze the man, so he 
announced that the said cook was short in his accounts with him, 
and that he would not allow him to leave, and would have him 
arrested if he tried ta This meant the payment of a sum of money 
to the magistrate to clear himself, a probable delay of three or four 
days and, as I am going to leave to-morrow, he would lose a good 
job. As a matter of fact the inn-keeper owes Kao his wages for 
nearly a year, this he refused to pay him, and not satisfied with 
this, forced the cook to pay him 10 taels to escape the criminal 
prosecution with which he had threatened him, all of which, 
and a great deal more, my new covipagnon de voyage will make 
out of me before we reach the journey's end. 

December 2^. — All the guests at the inn and the friends I have 
made while stopping here escorted me to the west end of the 
town and there wished me I lu ping -an "a prosperous journey." 
The road we followed took a west-southwesterly direction, 
receding considerably from the northern mountain range. The 
soil was but slightly cultivated, most of it being used as pasture 
lands for the innumerable flocks and herds waiting here to be 
sold. As we advanced the soil became more and more alkaline, 
but villages, as dirty as usual, were still numerous, with willow 
groves, around each one. We passed a few primitive carts, in 
which not a bit of iron is used, drawn by miserable little cows, 



l8 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

carrying soda to Kuei-hua, or " big beans " (Ja fou), or willow 
twigs for making baskets. 

We reached Shih-erh-t'eng by 6.30 p. M. and made ourselves 
pretty comfortable in the inn, thanks to the presence in my party 
of an old cart driver called Li who had driven me in '88 from 
Peking to Hsi-an Fu, and whom I had met at Kuei-hua where he 
was buying tallow to send to Peking. He had insisted on escort- 
ing me as far as Ho-k'ou and knew how to " hustle about" and 
get all he wanted from the apparently meagre supplies in the inns, 
every one dreading his tongue, irrefutable logic, and endless 
profanity. 

December 26. — The road bent a little more to the south than 
yesterday, the soil was whiter with alkaline efflorescence, and 
the hamlets smaller and not so numerous. Away to the south 
some fifteen to eighteen miles we saw low hills, of loess 
apparently. The sand grouse flew here and there in vast flocks, 
and boys and men were trapping them, using for that purpose a 
hair noose tied to a lump of clay or a little stick, a number of 
little clay decoys being placed around each trap. The birds 
get their clumsy parrot-like feet firmly entangled in the noose and 
fall an easy prey to the trappers, who hawked them about boiled in 
the inn yards; the meat is very dry and flavorless, but if roasted 
would probably be quite palatable. 

We passed through Tou Ch'eng, the Togto of the Mongols and 
possibly Marco Polo's Tenduc, and 5 // south of it reached Ho-k'ou 
on the Yellow River.* On the loess hill behind this place are the 
ruins of a large camp or ch'eng, in all likelihood the site of the 
old town. The Yellow River is on this side embanked, with fine 
willows growing along the dykes. Ho-k'ou, called Dugus or 
Dugei by the Mongols, carries on an important trade in soda; it is 
made into large blocks about a foot square and three feet long, and 

* Pere Gerbillon, in the account of his sixth voyage in Tartary (Duhalde, op. cit., 
IV, 345) speai<sof the city of Toto as follows: " Cette Ville est quarree comme celles 
de la Chine; ses murailles ne sent que de terre, mais d'une terre ni bien battue, qu' 
elle ne s'est eboulee nuUe part depuis trois ou quartre cens ans et plus, qu' elle est 
batie." Col. Yule, The Book of Ser Marco Polo (2d edit.) 1, 277, thinks that 
Kuei-hua Ch'eng was Tenduc, the capital of Prester John, but I cannot but think 
that he overlooked the existence of Togto when he made the identification. Hue 
(pp. cit., I, 215) calls Ho-k'ou by its Mongol name of Tchagan Kouren, meaning, I 
presume, " the white camp," 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 19 

in this shape sent to Peking and other cities of northern China. 
There is also a good deal of business done here with the Ordos 
Mongols who live across the river. 

December 2j. — The people hereabout make clumsy flat boats in 
which they descend the river in summer to T'ung-kuan* in three 
or four days; there the boats are usually sold for lumber, as it is 
too hard work to get them up to Ho-k'ou again. 1 noticed moored 
to the bank a number of these typical mud-scows made of willow 
planks. They are some forty feet long with about fifteen feet 
beam; they are the only craft made along this part of the 
river, and do little credit to the ship-building skill of the people. 
The rafts from Kan-su (Lan-chou and Ning-hsia) do not come this 
far, but stop at Pao-tu, as do the ox-hide rafts from Hsi-ning 
which bring down oil. 

Having to stop over here to-day to make some purchases, I went 
across the river to some Mongol houses to buy butter. These 
Mongols are of the Djungar branch of the Ordos tribe, and are 
very Chinesefied, though the women have retained the Mongol 
fashion of braiding the hair and their peculiar ornaments, especially 
the big earrings; the men, however, dress in purely Chinese style. 
These Djungars are very thrifty and much less demoralized than 
the Chahar. At the house in which 1 called, milk-tea was served 
and parched millet, instead of the tsamba eaten by the western 
tribes, eaten soaked in it. They eat, however, cheese and sour 
milk as do the western tribes. Unlike the western Mongols who 
do not object to being called Ta-tzu, these Djungar and all eastern 
Mongols resent the use of the term, and always speak of them- 
selves as Meng-gu. 

These Djungars have entirely given up the use of tents and live 
in Chinese style, observing only a few of the customs of their 
people ; the most carefully adhered to is that of exchanging snuff- 
bottles for a whiff with each guest as he arrives, though neither 
the host nor the guest takes any snuff, but only partially withdraws 
the stopper and raising the bottle to the nose, then returns it, 
holding it in both hands and making a profound bow to the owner. 

December 28. — The Djungar Mongols enjoy the honor of having 
at present the supremacy among the tribes forming the Ike chao 

* T'ung-kuan is an important banier on the highroads between Peking, Hsi-an, 
Ssii-ch'uan, Han-k'ou, etc. See Land of the Lamas, 17 et seq. 



20 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

league, their chief being known as the Djungar (in Chinese Chung- 
kou-erh) t'a or " Generalissimo." This title was formerly borne 
by the Prince of Wushun, but on his demise the Djungars managed 
by a liberal distribution of presents to the Mongol superintendency 
at Peking {Li-fan yuan), with whom the appointment rests, to 
secure the honor to their Wang. 

I left Ho-k'ou at lo a. m., and after crossing the Hsiao Hei ho, 
which flows through the town and empties into the Yellow River 
two and a half miles south of it, we traversed the latter river (here 
some four hundred yards wide) on the ice, and ascended the Shen- 
hsi plateau which is about one hundred yards higher than the river. 
The Yellow River, at this point of its course, does not appear to 
spread much beyond its present bed, for villages are built on the 
river bottom, though the embankment at Ho-k'ou shows that it 
occasionally threatens the town.* 

Leaving the river behind, we found ourselves on an undulating 
plateau of sand and loess with little farms of Chinese and Mongols 
scattered here and there in sheltered nooks. Wherever possible 
{i. e., where protected from the winds) the soil is cultivated, but 
water is scarce, though wells of very inconsiderable depth are 
numerous and might be used to irrigate the fields from. A few 
willow trees around each mud house relieve, in a measure, the 
monotony of the view. 

We traveled some fifteen miles and stopped for the night at 
Lien-pi yao-tzii, a hamlet of Shan-hsi farmers where we found 
sleeping room only.f Fortunately 1 had laid in a supply of 
provisions at Ho-k'ou, enough to last me until we reach Ning-hsia. 
Among other articles I had prepared about ten catties of mutton 
chiao-tzu or pates, which had been frozen so as to stand the roughest 
handling, ten catties of chao-mien, or parched meal, in which a 
little greese and hashed mutton is added, and which mixed with 
boiling water, forms an excellent and filling mush. 1 had also 
fifteen catties of vermicelli {kua-mien), a boiled sheep cut in pieces 

* I am not aware that severe inundations occur along this portion of the Yellow 
River valley or higher up it. Below T'ung-kuan, near which point the river receives 
three large affluents, terrible inundations are of frequent occurrence. 

t The owner and his son got very mad with me because 1 whistled, and insisted 
that I should not do so in the house, as it would bring them bad luck. The same 
superstition is found in parts of Turkestan, Eugene Schuyler, Turkestan, II, 29 (3rd 
Amer. edit.). 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 2i 

of about a pound each, a brick of tea, plenty of good butter packed 
in a sheep's paunch, and a bag of small loaves of wheaten bread. 
I had also bought at Kuei-hua a kettle, a copper tea-pot, a grate 
in which to burn argols and a few other indispensable articles for 
camp life, so I felt absolutely independent and fared sumptuously. 
I notice hereabout, as also on the left bank of the river, that the 
potash-impregnated soil in all the little hollows has been carried 
away to Ho-k'ou, where it is put on a reed seive and water poured 
on it. The water that drains off is evaporated and the soda (or 
potash, chien) made into the large cakes previously referred to, 
shipped to Peking by way of Kuei-hua Ch'eng. Sand grouse fly 
about in vast flocks, especially at dawn and late at night, during 
the day we see but few; except when they have been disturbed, 
they move about but little. 

December 29. — The country does not differ from that traversed 
yesterday. No Mongols live along our road, but now and then 
we pass one riding along on a miserable little rough and lank pony. 
The road for part of the way to-day led along the base of a range 
of low hillocks of sand, with no habitations or cultivation to be 
seen anywhere. Towards three o'clock we stopped to drink a cup 
of tea at a little Chinese hamlet, near a temple called by the 
Chinese Hato Lohe jo,* on a hillock near by. 

We lost our road repeatedly to-day in the drifting sands, but 
kept in the right direction and finally pulled up for the night at a 
little village called Chang-kai Ying-tzu, about 7 It from Hsin chao 
(the "New Temple," Kolinjo the Mongols call it) where the 
Djungar Wang resides. The village is on the Husetan River, a 
good sized stream (for this region) flowing southwest by west and 
emptying into the Yellow River below Ho-k'ou. 

The man to whom the house in which we have stopped belongs 
told me it had not snowed for two years, and that the people were 
in dire distress. Weeds are the only fuel the country affords — 
they are even carried to Ho-k'ou — there is very little cattle in this 
district, the Mongols living quite a distance to the south, so the 
usual Mongol fuel, dry dung or argal, is totally wanting, and 
now the soil has been so baked for the last year that no weeds have 
grown on it. 

* Hato Lohe jo represents a Mongol name, or possibly a half Mongol, half Chinese 
one. 



22 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

December 30. — We left with a strong west wind blowing. Our 
road led west, northwest, first through sand hillocks, then over 
firmer soil strongly impregnated with alkali. The low range, which 
we have seen yesterday and to-day to the south, is evidently the 
former bank of the Yellow River. One may notice here and there 
all the way from Ho-k'ou to where we now are what appear to 
be old channels of the river. 




SPINDLE OF ORDOS MONGOLS. 

We reached towards dusk Hsiao nor, a station of the Belgian 
Catholic Mission. 1 found the father in the school room lecturing 
to his flock. He could not at first make out who I was, whether 
Chinese or foreigner, nor could he speak, the words would not 
come. Finally he broke forth in French, addressing both me and 
his Chinese in that language. After a while he got his speech 
under control, and we passed a most agreeable evening smoking 
and talking over our experiences in China and Mongolia. 

This station was founded five years ago, the ground having 
been leased from the Talat Princess. The Mission has erected 
substantial buildings and small cottages in which dwell about one 
hundred families of Chinese converts. The station farms several 
hundred acres and is practically self-supporting. The Father acts 
as a spiritual and temporal ruler, the people having no intercourse 
with the Chinese officials beyond paying their taxes to them. It 
is doubtful whether this system of keeping the converts in tutelage 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 23 

is a good one, though it is a sure means of getting proselytes when 
required, especially if a famine is (as is now the case) raging in the 
country. Father Lehmanns told me that "the pagans" are far 
more careful of their clothing and belongings than the Christians, 
for they have no one but themselves on whom to count. As to 
the latter, they trust blindly to the Mission for clothing, shelter, 
and all the necessaries and comforts of life. While talking on the 
subject to the Father a man came in who told him there were two 
villages of some forty families each which wanted to become 
neophytes to escape starving to death. Should the Mission be 
able, which is not probable, to accept them, nine-tenths will, in 
all probability, revert to their so-called "paganism" as soon as 
the famine is at an end. 

1 have had to change my plans here as 1 find it impossible to 
get a guide to take me directly to Teng-k'ou by the route south of 
the river. The Chinese hereabout do not go that way and there 
are no Mongols living here. It would require, furthermore, to 
hire camels to carry fodder for the mules, as none is to be had west 
of here ; all this would require more time than I want to give it, 
so I will cross to the right bank of the river and travel by way of 
San-tao ho-tzu, the residence of Monseigneur Hamer of the 
Belgian Mission. 

From this point the Wula shan, some of whose peaks are 
sprinkled with snow, appears quite close to us, though the 
Yellow River, which separates us from it, is eight miles away, 
and Pao-tu at its base is thirteen. The portion of the Ordos 
country along the banks of the Yellow River has only been 
settled by Chinese within the last thirty years. When Hue 
traversed this region there were no Chinese in it, but twenty years 
later when the Mohammedan rebellion broke out at Hua Hsien 
in Shen-hsi, many of the more peacefully inclined Chinese found 
a refuge here, just as others have found it in the tsao-ti outside 
the Great Wall to the north of the province of Chih-li and Shan-hsi. 

December 31. — Father Lehmanns escorted me three or four miles 
on my way. We managed to keep in the right direction to-day, 
though there is hardly any trail visible and my head driver deserves 
his name of " Mule Colt" (Lo chu-tzu) for he will never listen to 
any suggestion from me about the road, or anything else, but 
follows the even tenor of his way, which is nine times out of ten 



24 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

the wrong one. Ch'iang-pan, where we have stopped for the night, 
is one of the usually-met-with tumble-down hamlets, no better, 
no worse than any other we have seen west of Kuei-hua. 

Among the Djungars (and probably the other Mongols of the 
Ordos) grain is not ground on a quern but crushed in a large stone 
mortar with a stone armed trip-hammer similar to that which the 
Chinese use for husking rice, it consists of a trunk of a tree about 
ten feet long, with a stone some eight inches in diameter fixed in 
a hole at one end. This trunk is pivoted near one end on a wooden 
axle, and on the short end a woman presses with her foot, letting 
the hammer fall a height of about eighteen inches on the grain. 
It is a very clumsy contrivance, but answers its purpose well. 

I noticed to-day the first scythe 1 have seen in China. It was 
used to cut the long grass which supplies the fuel (and at present 
part of the food of the people), and consisted of a short, broad 
knife with a concave surface and a socket handle — the blade about 
ten inches long and four broad, fixed in a six-foot handle. The 
curve in the surface of the blade was near the back. The Chinese 
generally use a sickle, the blade of which is nearly at right angle 
with the handle, but scythes I had thought unknown to them, 
and really 1 do not know whether the instrument seen to-day 
ought not rather be termed a long-handled sickle. 

January i, 1892. — The ordinary Chinese house of this country 
can be built, the people tell me, for about three dollars. It 
consists usually of two small rooms, in one of which is a k'a7ig or 
stove-bed and a cooking-stove with one large hole for a cast- 
iron saucepan. Then there is a cup board, a few bed clothes and 
a heterogeneous mass of dirty rags and odds and ends which 
would disgrace the dust heap of any other country in the world 
but China. When a person wants to move, he takes what little 
wood-work there is about his house, rafters, doors, etc., packs 
them on a roughly made cart, in which not a piece of iron enters, 
and hitching to it his cow or donkey goes his way. 

The road to-day led us along the base of low hills, probably 
marking the former south bank of the Yellow River, and also for 
several miles along the dry bed of one of its present branches. 

We stopped at Tan-kai mao-to which boasts of being quite a 
place, with five or six inns and some thirty houses. In my room 
in the inn, among many mottoes written on slips of red paper 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 25 

and pasted around the domestic shrine, I noticed one "/>/, skui" 
("happiness and water"), a truly pathetic and, 1 fear, unheard 
appeal. 

The existing maps of this section of country are far from satis- 
factory. Thus on many, some seventeen miles west of Pao-tu, 
there appears a town called Pilchetai on the left bank of the Yellow 
River near the mouth of what would appear to be an important 
stream. The stream exists, it is called Kundulung, but of the city 
no one living knoweth. Then again Ho lai liu is given as the 
name of another locality, but it only means " River Willow," the 
ground near the river being everywhere hereabout covered with 
scrubby willows. 

The mountains to the north of the river are now called Pao (t'u) 
shan, and two days farther west they take the name of Wula shan 
from the Orat (in Chinese Wula) Mongols who live near by. 

January 2. — There is a little irrigation carried on hereabout, 
but, taken all together, the irrigated lands {ch'iu ti) are of small 
extent. I do not understand why the people do not irrigate 
their fields from wells, for water, and good at that, is found 
nearly everywhere a few feet below the surface of the ground. 

At Sumutu, where we stopped to eat our lunch oi chiao-tzu and 
tea, the people were threshing the seed out of the briars and grass 
they had cut to feed their cattle with. This they boiled, then 
dried, finally grinding it and making bread in which they mixed 
a very little wheat flour which they had to go to Pao-t'u to buy. 
The distress among the people is so great that they have taken 
to pillaging each other to get the wherewithal to eke out their 
miserable existence. 

We stopped for the night at quite a respectable village called 
Ta hua-erh, the best looking place we have seen since leaving 
Ho-k'ou. Before reaching it we had to cross the river on the ice. 
It is at this point about one-third of a mile wide and apparently 
very shallow; the ice was, however, so thickly covered with dust 
it was difficult to make out where the river began and ended. All 
the country west of Pao-t'u as far as this place belongs to the Hsi 
Kung or Western Duke of the Orat Mongols. The Orat Mongols 
are divided into three branches under the rule of a Western {Hsi), 
Eastern {Tung), and Middle {Tumta) Duke {Kung). The Chinese 
living in the Ordos country are, 1 believe, under the jurisdiction 



26 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

of Yu-lin Fu in Shen-hsi, but they pay rent to the Mongol princes 
for the land they occupy. The Chinese here tell me that the 
Yellow River flows under ground at Pao-t'u, by which I suppose 
is to be understood that a second stream flows under that which 
is seen passing at that locality. It is curious in this connection 
to recall that Chinese authors say that the Yellow River has its 
source in the Lob nor and thence flows under the mountains to 
the north and south of the Ts'aidam to reappear in the Odontala, 
where we know that its true sources are located. 

January 3. — Our route led us along the base of the Wula shan 
and past the residence of the Hsi Kung of the Orats, a Chinese- 
looking place, quite recently built and with a very substantial 
appearance. A couple of miles to the west of it is a handsome 
lamasery of the Tibetan style of architecture, also recently built or 
restored. It is called Baron gomba ("Eastern lamasery") by Mon- 
gols, and Kung miao or " the Duke's monastery " by the Chinese. 

A stream, a real one and the only one worthy the name we have 
seen since leaving Ho-k'ou, flows by the Kung's residence; it is 
probably the Ho lai liu river of our maps, for it is about from this 
point that the river willow {ho lai liu) grows thick all over the river 
bottom, and affords an inexhaustible supply of fuel to the inhabit- 
ants. It seems to me to be the same as the jAa/z« ("sand willow") 
of the Ts'aidam. I am informed, however, that such is not the case, 
forthesha liu is called borgaso'm Eastern Mongol and in the Ts'aidam 
balro, while the ho liu (or ho lai liu) is the ulan borgaso or " red 
willow." I am also told that there is a third variety called hung 
liu ("red willow") known to Eastern Mongols as ulan moto 
("red wood") and in the Ts'aidam called ulasun moto* 

We passed now and then one or two small Mongol tents 
surrounded with brushwood fences to protect them from the wind 
and wolves. The people who inhabit them have neither flocks 
nor herds, probably they are farther south for there is absolutely 
no grazing along our line of march. We saw to-day a few loads 
of wool and hides being carried eastward on camels and in Chinese 
carts; this is the first freight we have met since leaving Kuei-hua. 

Since crossing the Huang ho yesterday I have seen quite a 
number of pheasants, a few partridges, some geese, but no more 

*On the flora of this section of the Yellow River valley, see Prjevalsky, Mongolia, 
I, 189 et seq. 





Hsi KuNG MiAO. Lamasery in the Ordos Country. 





^V^99^^^^ 




iNr ^"' 


^'^^'^ayw-a— J:^' '^' ^^ 




~rr.jL>^ 






"«ii^fc3^.._4?- ■ 


wmm^-''~ ^ 


ft' 



T'a-Erh Ssu or Kumbum Lamasery. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 27 

sand grouse. Antelope (Huang yang or Antilope gutturosa of 
Prjevalsky) are very numerous on both sides of the river. 

The Wula shan range* is certainly not more than from twelve 
hundred to eighteen hundred feet high, but the country is so flat 
that even when miles away it does not lose a foot of its height, 
and appears quite imposing. 

There is a very little snow on the ground to-day, it fell last 
night. A little fell on leaving Tsahan obo (December 14), and 
that is all we have had so far on the journey. 

We stopped for the night at a little inn at a point where the 
mountains take a northwest bend; it is called Hsiao miao-tzu 
("the little temple"). The water is abominably brackish and as a 
result our tea is undrinkable — and it has to be bad for that ! The 
mountain slopes hereabout are covered with a stunted juniper 
(/>az shu the Chinese call it) ; the predominating rocks are gneiss 
and granite. 

Since passing the Hsi Kung's residence we have seen no Chinese 
villages or farms and. 1 learn that that potentate only allows a very 
few farmers to cultivate land. He is a wise man in his generation, 
but the Chinese will some day own his domains for all that. 

January ^. — Two or three miles beyond Hsiao miao-tzu the 
Wula shan takes a sudden bend north-northeast, and connects 
by a line of low hills with another range to the west which in 
turn trends west-southwest, some ten or twelve miles from our 
route. We can now and then see the Yellow River a few miles 
on our left, its course nearly parallel to our route which passes 
through interminable thickets of liu shu (willow) and spear grass. 
Occasionally we see a few head of cattle and ponies and conclude 
that there are inhabitants to be found somewhere, but we see none. 
I notice once more large flocks of sand grouse, a few pheasants, 
some antelopes and a wolf. We stopped for lunch at a miserable 
cabin inhabited by some Chinese; near it are a few Mongol tents, 
this is Hamar hosho. The water is terribly brackish, and that is 
all there is to be said of this desolate spot. 

* Prjevalsky calls this range Munni ula. All the country between the meridian of 
Pao-t'u and that of San-tao ho-tzu, on the south side of the Yellow River, he calls 
the Kuzupchi sands. Kuzupchi, he says, means "collar" in Mongol and is a very 
appropriate name "on account of the distinct fringe which they (these sands) form 
along the valley." Mongolia, I, 93. 



28 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

We passed quite a number of camels going eastward and 
carrying goat-skins, camel's hair and wool, but the traffic is on 
the whole very small, and judging by the accommodations in 
inns along the road, and by their small number, it is probably never 
large at any season of the year. 

We put up for the night at Shelakang (Ta-pu ho of the Chinese), 
a solitary inn where I took up my abode in a miserable out-house 
so dirty that it would not have been used with us for a pig sty, and 
so low I could not stand upright in it; but 1 escaped the opium 
smokers in the huo fang; and was left in quiet to do my evening's 
work. It snowed off and on during the day, about two and 
one-half inches fell, but hardly any wind blew the while, and the 
cold was not severe. 

January s. — The route to-day still led us through dense brush- 
wood — hardly any habitations were visible, but Mongol boys 
herding sheep and an occasional passing horseman showed that 
the country was inhabited. The few Chinese dens we saw were 
occupied by miserable wretches, opium fiends of the purest type, 
thin and of the color of clay. 

It is seventeen miles from Shelakang to Ashan, where we 
stopped for the night, and from which place the people count 300 
li to San-tao ho-tzu. The soil along the route to-day was alkaline 
and devoid of vegetation, where irrigated, brush grows; the size 
and length of the irrigation ditches is astonishing, especially when 
one considers the sparse agricultural population of this region, and 
that the ever drifting sands oblige the farmers to be forever clean- 
ing the canals which would otherwise be rapidly choked. 

Ashan has a few dismal inns and a theater, that is to say the 
usual covered stage seen in most villages in North China in front 
of the local temple, where strolling actors perform, or amateurs 
give a play once a year. It is the first one we have seen since 
passing Tan-kai mao-to, and so Ashan must rank with that place 
in importance. 

The mountain range to our north is now called Lang shan, as 
to the country round-about Ashan it belongs to the Hangkin 
Mongols, and in Chinese it is called Hang-kai ti. West of Ashan 
we will reenter the Orat Mongols' district. 

January 6. — Of the country between Ashan and Ho-k'ou-ti, at 
which place or farm we arrived late this evening after losing our- 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 29 

selves, as usual, a dozen times on the way, little can be said. The 
road led all the way through brush and sand. Now and then we 
crossed a big irrigation ditch or a ploughed field, showing that 
somewhere, far from the road, were Chinese settlers. These 
irrigation canals are the bane of a traveler's existence as we have 
often to make enormous detours to get around or even across 
them. 

We stopped for lunch at Tsahan (or Chahan) nor ("White 
Lake"), but saw no sign of a lake. Some Mongols live, we are 
told, near here, but we only saw two Chinese hovels. 

Ho-k'ou-ti consists of a very small and dirty hovel (unless the 
name applies to the cluster of four or five hovels scattered over a 
radius of a mile or so near it). The owner let us have the use of 
a large and dirty empty room; the roof over it only covered a 
portion of the room, enough to let in the piercing wind but not 
to let out the smoke of our fire of brush which nearly suffocated 
us, as we had to build it in a sheltered corner to keep it from being 
blown about by the wind, which swept in eddying gusts into the 
house, bringing down clouds of dust and soot from the mud 
roof 

The Ordos Mongols comprise seven clans : the Djungar 
(Chungkor in Chinese), Talat, Wang, Ottok, Djassak, Wushun 
and Hangkin.* At present the head of the league is the Djungar 
Wang or Djungar Ta. His predecessor was the Wushun Wang. 
This prince receives a patent from the Colonial Office of Peking 
(Li-Fan Yuan), which is, it is rumored, greatly influenced in its 
selection by the value of the presents the rival candidates 
make it. 

The Orat Mongols, of whom I have spoken previously, are, I 
hear, divided into three clans : Hsi kung, Tung kung and Tomta 

* We are told by Ssanang Setzen that the Ordos Mongols had the special duty of 
protecting the camp (Ordu) of Jingis Khan and the other great Mongol Khans, and 
it is conjectured, very reasonably, that it was from this office that the tribe received its 
name. See H. H. Howorth, History of the Mongols, I, 401 ; also 1. J. Schmidt, 
Geschichte der ost Mongolen von Ssanang Setzen, 191 and 408. Timkowski, 
op. cit., II, 268, gives also some details concerning this tribe. Prjevalsky calls the 
Talat Taldi, and has by so doing introduced considerable confusion in not only the 
study of this section of country but also into that of a corner of northwest 
Kan-su where he makes mention of a tribe which he likewise calls Taldy or Daldy, 
but which are, in all likelihood, of Turkish descent. 



30 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 



kung.* Hangkin is the westernmost of the Ordos clans. It con- 
fines on the territory of the Prince of Alashan, who is colloquially 
designated by Chinese as the Hsi Wang or " Western Prince." 

January 7. — Twenty miles 
through willow brush, spear 
grass and sand hillocks. We 
saw a few Mongol habita- 
tions, tents and houses, and 
a small lamasery, called by the 
Chinese Ch'angchimiao, prob- 
ably meaning " Long good luck 
lamasery," and built in half- 
Tibetan half-Chinese style. The 
whole face of the country was 
cut up by irrigation canals, the 
length and size of which aston- 
ished me. We stopped for 
lunch at Wei-yang-chi ti, a 
hamlet of four or five substan- 
tial houses. That in which we 
lunched was especially fine, 
and the old Shen-hsi man who 
owned it was the most pros-" 
perous looking being we had 
seen for a long time. A goodly 
bunch of sheep of his were 
drinking from troughs in the 
yard around which were huge 
piles of brushwood neatly ar- 
ranged, and carts and farming 
implements nearly filled the remaining space. We left this place 




WATER BOTTLE AND CLOTH COVER. 

Used by lamas to moisten their lips from during the 

forenoon (Kumbum). 



♦Meaning "West Duke," "East Duke" and "Middle Duke." These Orat 
Mongols are probably Kalmucks. See H. H. Howorth, op. cit., I, 497, et seq. I 
am unable, however, to account for their presence among the Ordos Mongols; 
possibly they came there at the time when the Eleuts first occupied Alashan, in 1686, 
according to Timkowski, op. cit., II, 279. This same author (II, 265), quoting 
probably Chinese geographical works of the i8th century, says, however, that three 
Orat banners were living in the valley of Khadamal, which begins about a mile to the 
west of Kuei-hua Ch'eng and extends westward about seventy miles, in other words, 
they lived in the lower Hsi-ho valley. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 3 1 

^ < 

towards two o'clock and wandered about till after dark trying 
to find Wu-ta-ku, where we had been told we would find lodg- 
ings and fodder. 

It was dark when we reached this place, but we were refused 
admittance — a party of travelers had the only room in the inn — 
so we went on further, and the mules led us of themselves to a 
farm house. Again we were turned away, but pushing my way 
into the huo fang, I found that the chang-kuei-ti was an asthmatic 
old woman of rather kindly and decidedly inquisitive nature who, 
on the promise of a little medicine and the hope of making some- 
thing out of the party, persuaded the most ragged of her motley 
and disreputable band of retainers, a blind and opium smoking 
beggar, to cede me his hovel for the night. He, his wife and two 
bairns and a few lambs turned out of their twelve-feet square cabin, 
and 1 tried to make myself comfortable for the night, for it was 
bitter cold outside and I had rather stifle than freeze. It was warm 
in the hut, but it was also the vilest, dirtiest hole it had ever been 
my bad fortune to put up in. Later on in the evening the beggar 
asked permission to sing a song for me, he being, it appeared, a 
noted minstrel among his people. In an evil hour I consented. 
He strummed on an antiquated san-hsien, and then with much 
wheezing, snorting and horrible grimacing he sang, or rather 
yelled, an interminable ditty about an honest official and the great 
rewards the Emperor conferred on him for his astonishing virtues. 
It was long, very long, and painful for us who understood but a 
word here and there of his jargon, but I thanked him, and then — 
he wanted to sing again. 1 bribed him to desist, and he went and 
charmed our neighbors far into the night. 

We saw a few pheasants to-day, some partridges and sand 
grouse. We are still in Hangkin, but Alashan begins a little to 
the west of this place before one reaches San-tao ho-tzu, which 
is now but a stage off. 

January 8. — The day's march was through dense brush, and 
the detours to get over irrigating canals, long and numerous, and, 
to add to our trouble, we did not reach San-tao ho-tzu, but only 
Ta-chung-t'an, some six miles away from it. To add to our misery 
and the discomfort of cart travel — never agreeable under the most 
favorable circumstances — the soil had been turned up by licorice 
diggers, making pitfalls two and three feet deep and as many across 



32 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

all over the face of the country. Licorice is exported from here in 
large quantities to Tien-tsin ; it is the most valuable, in fact the only 
natural product of the soil. The Chinese call it kan tsao, the 
Mongols shiker ebuso, both meaning " sweet grass or plant."* 

A few miles before reaching Ta-chung-t'an we crossed the Wula 
ho flowing southeast. This stream marks the boundary of 
Alashan. Ta-chung-t'an is a fortified village and resembles an 
Arab borj, or rather it is a big farm house with a large number of 
out houses, the whole surrounded by a fifteen-foot wall in which 
there is but one heavy gate. The people had to resort to fortifying 
themselves in this way during the Mohammedan rebellion in the 
sixties. The rebels devastated the whole country, and it has not 
even yet recovered from their ravages. 

The carts we see here at Ta-chung-t'an are of a new type, well 
suited to sandy soil. The wheels are five feet six inches in 
diameter and about four inches broad. f The body of the cart is 
quite light, and it is drawn by one bullock yoked between the 
shafts; the yoke is attached to the shafts and consists of a bent 
piece of wood resting on the animal's back, or rather against 
its neck, and is held firmly in place by a rope passing around the 
oxen's neck. 

I hear that when the crops are good, a large quantity of hemp 
seed oil {ma yu) is exported from here, but at present there is 
nothing to export, nothing to sell, and hardly anything to eat. 
It is pitiable to hear the poor people talk. They speak of nothing 
but the price of flour, and their only question is whether in my 
country it ever happens that for two years no rain falls. 

January p. — Although we were only a few miles from San-tao 
ho-tzu it took us until three o'clock to reach that place, and we 
traveled about sixteen miles, so stupid and obstinate were the cart 
drivers. It was with no little pleasure that I at last saw a cross 
on top of a foreign-looking building, rising amidst a number of 
smaller ones looking too neat to be Chinese houses, and a few 

*ln Tibetan of the Koko now it is called sha-nyar. It is also very abundant in 
western Kan-su, near Lusar, and in western Ts'aidam, but there is no mari<et for it. 
Prjevalsky calls it Glycyrrhiza Uralensis, and says the Chinese name for it is so or 
soho. Mongolia, 1, 191. So and soho probably represent the sound ts'ao. 

t Hue, op. cit., 11, 5, referring to these high wheeled carts of northeast Kan-su says 
that even in ancient times this portion of Kan-su was inhabited by Tartars called by 
the Chinese Kao-che or " High carts." 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 33 

minutes after I was shaking hands with my good friend Bishop 
Hamer and the jolly, kind-hearted fathers of the Belgian Catholic 
Mission. My boy, the carters, the mules, were all provided for, 
and the fathers and I sat down in the refectory over a glass of 
schnapps and a pipe and talked till late in the evening. 

As I expressed some doubt as to the possibility of converting 
Mongols, the Bishop told me that at Boro balgasun ("Grey 
Town"), eight days southwest of here in the Ottok Mongol 
country, he had some thirty families of Christian Mongols. Be- 
tween here and Shih-tsui-tzu, at Kang-tzu-tien or Fu-erh-tien 
there live a few families of Mohammedan Mongols. 

1 heard that in the Ordos and in Alashan there grows a kind of 
currant, used by the Chinese as a medicine, or to make a medi- 
cine of: it is known to ^tva •i.s hung kuo-tzu ("red fruit") and to 
Mongols as kire innuto. The fruit-bearing thorn {pei-tzu in 
Chinese, bota or kSrS innudun in Mongol) is also found here. Its 
fruit is called hamorok, probably the same word as the Ts'aidam 
Mongol's harmak, the Chinese hara-ma-ku* 

January 10. — 1 had not intended stopping at San-tao ho-tzu, 
or San sheng-kung (" the Trinity's palace") as the fathers call it, 
but the Bishop insisted that, as it was Sunday, I must pass it 
with him. I consented with pleasure. I have cut out for myself 
a little more work than I can manage single-handed without a 
very great tax on my strength, and an occasional day of rest is 
very enjoyable. 

The Bishop has built this last year over fifty new houses for 
famine converts, and altogether he has here, or in the villages in 
the immediate neighborhood some three hundred odd Christian 
families. Many of them are absolutely dependent on him; he 
gives a peck {tou') of flour to each family every month, enough 
for one meal of mien a day — sufficient to support life, and the lazy 
beggars ask nothing else, and do not a hand's turn to help them- 
selves or assist the fathers in any way. 

In the church I saw the tomb of Monseigneur de Voos, the first 
Catholic bishop of the Ordos; he died about two years ago and 
was succeeded by Monseigneur Hamer, who was then Bishop 
of western Kan-su, living at Liang-chou. One of the peculiar 



*The Nitraria schoberii of Prjevalsky, who transcribes the Mongol name 
Karmyk, See also under May 4th, 1892. 



34 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

changes which Christianity everywhere effects in Chinese women 
is curing them of the silly bashfulness of the so-called ' ' heathens. " 
This results, it would appear, from the fact that they receive the 
same religious instruction as the men and attend church with 
them. It is no easy matter to get them to the church for the first 
time, but, this ordeal over, they feel raised in the social scale and 
are decidedly improved by the change (at least in Europeans' 
eyes). Often native Christian women have paid me visits, sitting 
down in my room and talking as freely as did the men. On the 
whole, the salutary effects of Christianity are more visible in the 
women than in the men, in this country as in others. 

San-tao ho-tzu is about two miles from the Yellow River, 
which is visible from the church steeple. There is a range of 
hills along the right (south) bank of the river, which gradually in- 
creases in height to the southwest till it appears to culminate in 
a flat topped mountain called Orondeshi. 

January ii. — We left at about 1 130 p. M., after having photo- 
graphed the Bishop, the fathers and the mission houses. The lat- 
ter are wonderfully well built, when one considers the difficulties 
of every sort with which the builders have had to contend. The 
broad, well-irrigated fields, the rows of willows lining the roads 
and surrounding the various hamlets, are all their work, the result 
of their energy during the last sixteen years. 

Between San-tao ho-tzu and Kang-tzu tien, where we stopped 
for the night, we saw nothing but sand hillocks, willow brush 
and sand flats, and everywhere were innumerable big holes, 
dug by licorice hunters, over which we had to bump our way. 
Just before reaching Kang-tzu tien we came to the bank of the 
Yellow River, here some three hundred to four hundred* yards 
wide. To our southwest we saw the northern extremity of 
the Chua-tzu shan, the Orondeshi or "Anvil peak" of the 
Mongols.* This name is of common use among Mongols 
who frequently apply it to mountains with flat tops, which we 
would call small mSsas. We passed several Mongol shepherds 

* Orondeshi is properly the name of a peak in this short range, with a flat, mesa- 
shaped top of rock, but by extension its name is given to the whole of it. Accord- 
ing to Col. Prjevalsky {JMongolia, I, 221), it is called Arbus-ula. " Accord- 
ing to a Mongol tradition, he also says, one of the rocky peaks of the Arbus-ula, 
which has the shape of a table, served as a forge for Chinghiz Khan's smithy." 
There is another Orondeshi near the source of the Yellow River. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 35 

carrying about on the end of a stick a smouldering bit of dry dung, 
now and then when their hands and feet were numbed with the 
cold they used it to light a bunch of grass, and warm themselves 
by the blaze. 

January 12. — Shortly after starting this morning our route 
turned due south and followed the bank of the Yellow River, here 
between four hundred and eight hundred yards wide. The bottom 
lands were covered everywhere with different varieties of the liu 
willow, bunch grass and a few shrubs and briars on which 
sheep were feeding, faute de mieux. The sand dunes were larger 
and more numerous, to our west they stretched for miles in 
parallel hnes till they reached the base of the Alashan Mountains, 
here some ten to fifteen miles from the river. 

Of Mongol life one sees nothing along this road, and of Chinese 
only the very lowest form. A filthier, more good-for-nothing, 
shiftless lot I never saw anywhere in China, and yet, when 1 look 
at the irrigation ditches these people have dug and keep clean, I 
must fain admit that they can not be quite what they look. Winter 
is a bad time to see them in, they must bloom out in summer. 

One of the Fathers at San-tao ho-tzu told me that he had 
frequently seen letter carriers traveling for some private post-office, 
and having to reach their destination in a given time, which only 
permitted them to take a little sleep now and then, tie, when 
about to take a nap, a bit of joss-stick to their thumb, light it and 
sleep on till the stick had burned down to the thumb, when the 
pain of the burn awakened them and they resumed their journey. 
The people of Shen-hsi also use a joss-stick to time the noon- 
day rest of the workmen in the fields, letting them rest while a 
given length of it burns. 

We stopped for the night in a solitary inn called Kuan-ti, about 
half a mile from the bank of the river. The two big k'ang, 
which nearly filled the only room, were occupied by some twenty 
travelers, but we squeezed into a corner and made ourselves toler-' 
ably comfortable. Fortunately I have long ago ceased to mind 
bad smells ; were it otherwise, the odor of this house would have 
stifled me. 

January 13. — We traveled on through more sand and brush, 
passing before T'eng-k'ou (Tungor in Mongol), the only place we 
have seen on the right bank of the river since passing Tan-kai- 



36 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

mao-to in the Ordos. It consists of a dozen houses and, mirabile 
dictu, there is a vegetable garden outside it where potatoes and 
cabbages are said to thrive. It used to be, before the Mohammedan 
rebellion, much larger, and it existed even, so report says, in the 
Yuan period, when it was a place of great importance and of 
possibly considerable size.* It is supposed by some writers to have 
been Prester John's capital, but 1 am inclined, for reasons given 
previously, to place that at Ho-k'ou. 

The sand dunes on the left bank attain, in front of T'eng-kou, 
to the size of hills; especially is this the case around a little ham- 
let called Sabokto. This name has a Mongol look to it, but 1 am 
inclined to think it is Chinese and should be read Sha-po to, 
" Many sand hills"; at all events, that would be a good way to 
transcribe the name in Chinese. Just beyond this place we cut 
across a big bend of the river, thus shortening our road several 
miles. When here it suddenly began blowing such clouds of dust 
that we got lost; the sky at moments was totally obscured. The 
wind blew in narrow currents; at one moment we were lost in 
dust and a few minutes later we reached a spot where no wind 
was blowing, to again be wrapped in dust a few hundred yards 
farther on. 

We stopped for the night at Ho-kuai-tzu where my rest was 
disturbed by part of the family passing the night helping a ewe 
in a difficult case of parturition, and by my carters and a couple of 
travelers feasting on dead horse cooked with lots of garlic, a dish 
fit for a king, they said. 

Coal of a poor quality is mined some twenty // west of Ho-kuai- 
tzij and made into coke, which sells, so the chang-kuei-ti said, 
but 1 believe he lied so as to squeeze me a little, for three cash a 
catty, while coal brings two. The coal used at San-tao ho-tzu 
comes from this mine. 

We are now abreast of the Yin shan, which borders here the 
Yellow River along its right bank. It, like its continuation, the 

* Col. Prjevalsky, in 1871, came from Pao-t'u across the Ordos country, and reached 
the Yellow River at this point, but he makes no mention of any place on its right 
bank but speaks of the town of Ding-hu on the western (left bank). "This small 
town had been entirely destroyed by the Dungans. * * * The only inhabitants of 
Ding-hu are the garrison, numbering at one time a thousand men." See Prjevalsky's 
Mongolia, I, 221. Though the name Ding-hu looks very much like T'eng-kou, it 
is the present Sabokto. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 37 

Chu-tzu shan to the north, is formed of stratified reddish brown 
sandstone dipping eastward. The mountains on the west side of 
the river are of similar formation with a westerly dip. The gravel 
covering the country in spots is of gneiss and disintegrated con- 
glomerate, and in the drifted sand much hornblende is to be seen. 

January 14. — At Ho-kuai-tzu the willow brush and bunch grass 
cease, the soil becomes stony (sandstone), and the road is over 
rising ground, the foothills of the Alashan range. Watch towers, 
which are found on all roads leading to China when one is close 
on to the Great Wall, are noticeable on either side of the river, and 
are excellent points for compass bearings, as are also the obo or 
stone heaps. 

The valley of the Yellow River is here not over three miles in 
width, the mountains to the west are called by the Chinese Hsi 
shan (" Western Hills "), a name they retain as far as Chung-wei 
Hsien, where we lose sight of them ; they are the Alashan 
mountains of our maps. 

We stopped for lunch at Erh-tzu tien on the bank of the river. 
This is the only hovel between Ho-kuai-tzu and Shih-tsui. My 
men, who are always hungry, no matter how much they eat, 
thought to improve their porridge by the addition of some of my 
butter. They took, by mistake, a big piece of Marseille soap and 
seasoned their food with it. The boy soon discovered their theft 
and told them of it. They came to me in a body with long and 
anxious faces asking if their lives were in danger. I said they 
would probably die, as even an external application of soap to a 
Chinese frontiersman was very dangerous, an unheard of thing in 
fact, what then must become of them who had taken such a large 
quantity internally. Useless to add that their stomachs did not 
feel the least worse for the unusual condiment. 

On leaving Erh-tzu tien we went for a short distance along the 
bank of the river where it rises about fifty feet above the low 
water mark. The cliff showed some twenty-five feet of coarse 
gravel of sandstone, gneiss and granite, on top of which was the 
same thickness of honey-combed loess. The same strata were 
visible on the right bank. This loess had not been washed down 
from higher levels but was, I judged, a true sub-aerial deposit. 

As we entered Shih-tsui we met two drunken Mongols riding 
camels. One tried to make a row and swore he would shoot one 



38 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

of the "sao Man-tzic" diS\itC2\\t^ us. He took his gun off his back, 
tried his best to strike a light with his flint and steel to ignite the 
slow-match, but was so drunk he could not succeed, and we 
laughed at him so much that he finally lashed his camel in a fury 
and galloped off. 

At Shih-tsui the mountain range on the right bank of the river 
comes abruptly to an end in a ledge of rocks, and that on the left 
bank deflects to south south-west. The name Shih-tsui, or "Point 
of Rocks," is hence a most appropriate one for this locality. 
Officially it is known as Shih-tsui shan and in Mongol it is called 
Hotun jeli.* It is nominally the southernmost point in this 
direction on Alashan soil, but it is governed by Chinese officials and 
is an integral portion of the Ning-hsia Department, The road to the 
residence of the prince of Alashan branches off from the road we 
had just come over between Kang-tzu tien and Kuan-ti. This 
palace of the Alashan Wang is called by Prjevalsky Din-yuan-ing 
or Wei-ching P'u, but no one whom 1 questioned about it knew of 
any other name for it than Alashan Ya-m^n or Wang-yeh Fu 
("The Prince's Palace"). 

There are now some fifty or sixty Chinese families, mostly Shen- 
hsi people, living at Shih-tsui-tzu, but before the Mohammedan 
rebellion there were several hundred, and the ruins of the old 
town cover the ground for half a mile around. Moored to the bank 
of the river 1 noticed a number of large pontoons or mud scows 
made of willow planks, like those seen at Ho-k'ou. It is a 
wonder that such miserably build things can carry any cargo, and 
above all that they can reach Pao-t'u, 

January 75. — Coal at Shih-tsui is brought from the Hsi shan, 
about twenty miles away ; it costs half a cash a catty, or five 
hundred cash for a cart load.f 

* On the map of the River Hoang ho, accompanying Mr. St. George R. Littledale's 
paper on his recent journey across Asia, Geographical Journal, 111, 445, et seq., 
this place is called Sudwisashan! On the same map San-tao ho-tzu is placed on the 
bank of the Yellow River, whereas it is several miles away from it. It is true that 
this name applies to all the Christian hamlets located thereabout, and there may be a 
little one on the river bank, though 1 did not hear of one. 

•j- Hue appears to have crossed the Yellow River in front of Shih-tsui (his Che Tsui 
Dze). He says that the coal mines and the potteries of this place are its sources of 
wealth. The town was much larger in his time than at present. See Hue, op. cit., 
II, 2, et seq. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 39 

The inn people tell me that the road to Ho-k'ou viA Teng-k'ou 
and the Ho-tung {i. e., the south side of the Yellow River) is 
very good, and that it only takes ten days to reach Pao-t'u by it. 
This is the road I wanted to travel over and was obliged to 
give up the idea of following on reaching Hsiao nor. But it is 
just as well 1 did not try it; my carters have proved themselves, 
times without number, unable to keep on the high road; what 
would it have been had we taken a cross road! 

Shih-tsui is of special interest to foreigners, for here lives one 
of the pioneers of western civilization in Eastern Asia, the German 
trader Graessel, an energetic man who is equally known for his 
wool (camel's) gathering, as for his Shopenhauer-reading, 
camel-riding proclivities. He, the Belgian Splingaerd, who lives 
at Hsia-yu kuan, and the late Dalgleish of Kashgar, have done 
more than any other three men living to introduce foreign ideas 
and a respect for European methods of trade in these remote 
regions. But, ye gods! what a life they all have had to lead! 
Once a year Graessel goes to Peking, sees a few Europeans, gets, 
for a week or so, in touch with the outside world, and then 
returns to Shih-tsui or the Alashan Mongols for yet another year 
of dirt and discomfort. 

We left Shih-tsui by nine o'clock and pushed on rapidly to 
Ping-lo Hsien, traversing a country covered with detached farms 
and little hamlets. For miles we followed a huge irrigation canal 
from which ran innumerable ditches leading the water all over the 
broad valley.* This stupendous work has converted an alkaline, 
wind-swept, sandy plain into a fertile district, where rice, wheat, 
millet and fruits of various kinds are raised in great abundance. 

About nine miles from Shih-tsui we saw, about a mile on our 
right, a branch (or rather a remnant of a branch) of the Great Wall 
terminating at the steep base of the Hsi shan. We passed through 
Hsia ying-tzu — a Christian village, Shang ying-tzu, Huang-ch'i 
chiao, a bustling maVket town where we took lunch, and finally 
pulled up at Ping-lo Hsien, a miserable, dilapidated place, lost in 
the sands which, on the north side of the town, have drifted to 
the height of the top of the walls. An alkaline plain, in a great 
measure unsuitable for agriculture, surrounds the town, and the 
raison d'etre of such a place is hard to fmd. 

*Cf. Hue, op. cit., II, 4-5. 



40 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

January i6. — We made an early start as we had to reach Ning- 
hsia by dusk, before the city gates were closed. The Hsi shan 
grew higher and more rugged as we advanced, and the right bank 
of the Yellow River, some three or four miles to our left, rose 
above the stream a hundred feet or so, the country behind it 
sloping very gradually upward. On a few peaks of the Hsi shan 
we could see a little snow. 

The country south of Ping-lo is very poor, alkaline deposits 
cover large areas with a thick white coating. Farms are few, the peo- 
ple congregating in the villages, of which we passed quite a number. 

We stopped for half an hour at Li-k'ang P'u to eat a momo* and 
drink a cup of tea, and then pushed on as rapidly as we could, 
but not fast enough, it turned out, for it was night when we reached 
Ning-hsia, and the city gates were closed when we pulled up 
before them. There are no suburbs on the north side of the city — 
a measure of precaution adopted since the Mohammedan rebellion, 
so we had to pound on the gates and shout wildly till we aroused 
the warders, and my boy explained to them that I was a foreign 
envoy en mission extraordinaire. Off they rushed to the Ch'en- 
tai's Ya-men for the keys of the gate, and, having opened it, 
escorted me with lanterns to a fairly good inn on the high street. 
The first impression I gained of this famous city was very 
disappointing; nothing but low, newly built mud houses, with a 
row of willow trees on either side of the street. We passed many 
vacant lots scattered about, and not a few ruins; in fact Ning-hsia 
is just rising for the fifth or sixth time in its history from its ruins. 

The inn was clean but of course there were no comforts; if you 
want luxuries of any kind in northern China you must carry 
them along with you for none are to be found, even in the best of 
inns. There is only one Mohammedan inn in the city, and this 
one is only tolerated, for Mohammedans are not allowed to pass 
the night inside the city; they may only come in during the day 
to transact their business and must go back to the suburbs by 
dark where they have their homes, f 

* A roll or small loaf of bread of wheat flour. 

\ The late Mohammedan rebellion is not apparently the cause of this measure, for 
we learn that as early as the beginning of the 17th century, when Benedict Goes 
went to China (1603-1607), the Mohammedans of the Su-chou in northwestern 
Kan-su (and probably elsewhere) were shut up every night within the walls of 
their own city, which was distinct from that inhabited by the Chinese. H. Yule, 
Cathay and the Way Thither, 582. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 41 

The Mohammedans here and in northern China frequently call 
themselves li cliiian, " esoterists," other Chinese they call wai 
ch'uan, "exoterists." They also say their faith is the "little 
religion" {hsiao chiao), while that of all other Chinese is the ta 
chiao or " great religion." They are the Chinese with prejudices, 
abstaining from pork, tobacco, and who do not eat unclean food 
or use unclean vessels; the Chinese of the other persuasions 
form the unprejudiced part of the population, to whom all kinds 
of food and every kind of enjoyment are good; these are prac- 
tically the only distinguishing features between the two faiths. 

Jamiary 17. — To-day I examined the carpet factories for which 
this place has been famous for centuries. The wool is bought 
from the Mongols and each manufacturer dyes his worsteds for him- 
self. 1 found it difficult to obtain very accurate information about 
the origin and nature of the dyes used. Brazil wood supplies a 
red dye, huai-tzu (seed of the Styphonolobhim japonicum, accord- 
ing to Williams), a yellow dye, safflower is also used, as is a red 
dye said to come from Tibet, and which is possibly the ts'o of the 
Tibetans. Another plant called here tzu hua-tzu (Jzu meaning 
"purple") supplies a light drab, and indigo furnishes them their 
blues. Aniline dyes, I was sorry to find, have found their way 
into the Ning-hsia market, but are not much used in dyeing wools 
for carpets, except for supplying purple. The green colors used 
come, 1 was told, from the East (probably Shanghai), and are there- 
fore, 1 presume, of foreign origin. The manufacturers only dye 
their wools in summer. In company with Mr. Horoben, of the 
China inland Mission, 1 visited a number of the factories (there are 
sixteen in the city), in most of which we found between six to ten 
looms at which both men and women worked. The looms, of 
the most primitive description, are vertical and the warp is passed 
over two rollers. The woof is passed in between two threads of 
the warp without the aid of any instrument, the wool being simply 
rolled in a ball, and is cut off roughly with a rather blunt knife. 
When a whole line has thus been put in, it is trimmed with a pair 
of shears. There is no pattern before the weaver, but he evolves 
the most intricate and tasteful designs without their assistance or a 
moment's hesitation. 

I found that many manufacturers were copying very common 
patterns of European ingrain carpets. These were to fill orders 



42 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

given them by various officials who had brought here bits of car- 
pet bought at some of the treaty ports. The usual size of the 
rugs is that necessary to cover a k'ang, say ten feet by six. 
Prayer rugs, cushions, saddle blankets, etc., are made in larger 
numbers than any other styles of rugs, as nearly all of them are 
sold to Mongols or go to Tibet. Besides rugs, Ning-hsia man- 
ufactures a good quality of paper, and here the industries of the 
place cease.* 

The town of Ning-hsia is still to a great extent a pile of ruins. 
The main street {ta chieh) — at least the portion of it on which there 
are shops of any pretension, is not over five hundred yards long. 
These have in them very few articles beyond the necessities of life 
and the usual Chinese "notions." The rest of the town looks 
very deserted, and the large number of soldiers one sees is evi- 
dence of the distrust still felt by the government towards the 
Kan-su people, and especially the Mohammedans. There is but 
little of the Kan-su element in the present population, the inhab- 
itants are largely from Shan-hsi, Shan-tung, with a sprinkling from 
probably all the other provinces of the empire. 

The members of the China Inland Mission tell me the climate is 
delightful, a clear sky nearly all the year, but little wind and no 
snow. The water is strongly alkaline, and no flowers can be 
raised here; what few one sees are brought from Lan-chou. 

Jamcary i8. — The coal used at Ning-hsia is mined in the Hsi 
shan some three or four days from here, and costs, delivered in 
the city, three cash a catty. The crops, 1 hear, are good on irrigated 
land {chiu H), but absence of any facilities for getting the grain to 
outside markets and their remoteness, deter farmers from raising 
more grain than the local consumption calls for. 

* Father Gerbillon, when at Ning-hsia in 1697 with the Emperor K'ang-hsi, makes 
mention of the rugs and paper made with hemp " beaten and mixed with lime 
water." — (See Du Halde, op. cit. iV, 372.) He also says (p. 373) that the best 
mules in China came from Ning-hsia. He furthermore remarks (p. 370) that it was 
one of the largest and most densely populated cities along the whole length of the 
Great Wall, the houses built so closely together that there was no room even for court- 
yards. Before the late Mohammedan rebellion it had already greatly fallen from its 
high state, for Hue {op. cit., II, 13 et seq.) speaks of the poverty of the city and of the 
absence of any commerce. Several quarters of the town were ruined and deserted 
" save for a few hogs wandering amidst the ruins." Most of the people were dressed 
in dirty rags and looked lank and pale, etc. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 43 

I saw in the inn-yard quite a number of sacks of dry rhubarb 
root en route for Pao-t'u. It comes, I am told, from Hsi-ning and 
is used by veterinaries, especially in treating camels. Some is 
found in the Hsi shan (Alashan range), but is of an inferior 
quality.* 

I leave to-morrow for Lan-chou in carts hired here for 14 taels a 
piece, and we are to reach our destination in twelve or thirteen 
days. These Ning-hsia carts are roomier than those used farther 
east, but no more comfortable. 1 leave Ning-hsia as 1 have done 
every other town in China, with no desire to go back to it. Like 
the plaster bust of which La Fontaine speaks, "De loin c'est 
quelque chose, de pres ce n'est rien." 

January ig. — Outside the south gate of Ning-hsia there is a 
miserable suburb where live the Huei-huei, and beyond this extend 
alkaline flats and marshes on which grow tall reeds that supply 
the city with fuel for heatmg the k'angs. We passed a few hovels 
belonging, presumably, to reed cutters, for no other profession 
would appear possible hereabout. 

The road led us nearly due south through numerous little 
hamlets and across two enormous irrigation canals, which, by the 
way, one would certainly take as depicted on all our maps, for 
branches of the Yellow River. These canals are about twenty feet 
broad between the banks and are in many places bordered by rows 
of willows. It is said, but I know not on what authority, that the 
irrigation of the plain of Ning-hsia was executed in the K'ang-hsi 
reign by imperial order. f These canals, both large and small, are 
called ho ch'ii. 

As we advanced the soil appeared slightly less barren; the 
Yellow River was soon lost to view, but the long low hills which 

*That its medicinal qualities have long been known among the Mongols is 
evidenced by Rubruk's mention of it. Land of the Lamas, 284 and Rubruk's 
Itinerariunt, 323 and 342. 

f Father Gerbillon speaks of the Ning-hsia irrigation canals as follows: "Tous les 
ans on employe plus de deux mille hommes pendant un mois entier a racommoder 
ces canaux, qui sans ce soin seroient bientot comblez par le sable et la terre que cette 
riviere entraine avec elle." Du Halde, op. cit. IV, 373. Irrigation canals of great 
extent must have existed as early as the beginning of the 13th century, in this district, 
for we know that when Ning-hsia was besieged by the Mongols under Jingis Khan, 
in 1209, the inhabitants flooded the Mongol camp " by opening the dykes of the 
river" (by which the canals must be meant). See H. H. Howorth, op. cit., I, 66. 



44 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

are beyond it were certainly not over five miles away, as 1 could 
distinguish little houses at their base. The Hsi shan took a 
decidedly western turn and appeared lower than even at Ping-lo 
Hsien, though it retained the same rugged appearance. 

We passed on the road a cart with Jardine and Matheson's flag, 
coming probably from Chung-wei Hsien, where camel's wool is 
sold in considerable quantities to foreigners. This trade has fallen 
off very much in the last three or four years on account of the 
Chinese middlemen rolling the wool in the dirt so as to add to 
its weight, and practicing other tricks on buyers. 

Everywhere traces of the rebellion of twenty-five years ago are 
visible — ruined villages and weed-grown fields. The rebellion 
was especially destructive to dwellings, but Chinese houses are so 
cheaply built, and contain so little of any value, that it is hard to 
conceive that they should not have sprung up at once again, were 
not other obstacles, created, perhaps, by the authorities to perpet- 
uate the memory of the punishments inflicted on the rebels, put 
in the way of their reconstruction. It was in a village a few miles 
off our road and on the river bank near here that the rebellion in 
these parts originated.* 

Wang-hu P'u, where we stopped for the night, must have once 
been a fine place, for ruins of well-built houses and yamens cover 
the ground for half a mile around the poor hovels which compose 
the present village. A very large irrigation canal passes through 
the village, and there are a number of locks through which the 
water can be drawn off into lesser ditches so as to supply the whole 
country. This abundant supply of water in the Ning-hsia plain 
makes it possible to grow rice, which is one of the staple products 
of this region. It is, however, of poor quality and reddish color, 
and not to be compared with that grown at Kan-chou in north- 
western Kan-su. 

*In Gerbillon's time the Ning-hsia plain must have been one vast garden, "On 
ne voit point de villages dans cette campagne, mais on la peut appeller un village con- 
tinue! ; car les maisons des Paysans y sent repandues de tous cotez environ a cent pas 
I'une de 1' autre plus ou moins * * * Enfin ce pays est un des plus beaux et des 
meilleurs que j 'aye jamais vue." Du Halde, op. cit., IV, 374. Even in Hue's time 
the road to the south of Ning-hsia is described as magnificent, v^fith willow andjujube 
trees growing along the side nearly the whole way to Wang-hu P'u, Hue, op. cit., 
H. 15. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 45 

January 20. — Very litttle can be said of the country we have 
traversed to-day, save to express astonishment that any one, even 
a Chinese, should have chosen it to live in. Nearly all the soil is 
alkaline and reeds are apparently the only product of the land. The 
few farms we saw were imposing from a distance; they looked 
like castles, with high crenelated and loop-holed stone walls 
(probably they were thus built to enable the owners to resist 
bands of marauders), but when one looked inside them they 
proved but filthy, tumbled-down dens. 

The irrigation canals grow larger as we advance southward. 
The smaller ones are led across the big ones by plank sluices, just 
as is done with us. 

Ta-p'a, where we stopped for the night, is a very small place 
beside the ruins of a walled town {Ck'eng). Yeh-sheng P'u, and 
half a dozen other places we passed through before reaching it, 
are like it — hamlets built on the ruins of former towns. We have 
seen no traffic on the road since leaving Ning-hsia, only ox-carts 
loaded with reeds and straw. 

At Ta-p'a coal can be bought; it is brought from the Hsi shan 
twenty miles away. The inn-keeper said it sold for ten cash a 
catty, and it undoubtedly does when he or his like have the 
sale of it. The same high authority said it took three days to 
reach Chung-v/ei Hsien and six from there to Lan-chou Fu. 

The weather remains wonderfully pleasant, just such weather 
as one usually has at Peking at this time of the year. The nights 
very cold but clear, the days warm enough to make walking 
agreeable, and no wind. The barometric variations are wonder- 
fully small during the twenty-four hours. 

Ta-p'a is of some importance as it is the first and principal 
distributing point of the water brought from the Yellow River 
south of here to fertilize the Ning-hsia plain. At this point three 
or four branch canals leave the main one, carrying water to the 
various levels of the plain. This main canal {ho Mu) we crossed 
for the first time at Wang-hu P'u.; it passes east of Ning-hsia 
and terminates a couple of miles east of Shih-tsui. 

January 21. — Crossing a low range of limestone hills which, 
branching out from the Hsi shan, abut on the Yellow River a few 
miles to our left and there form a gorge through which the river 
flows, we came on its western side to Kuang-wei, the country up 



46 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

to that point uninhabited and untillable; it is too high to be 
irrigated and there are no permanent streams in these hills. Beyond 
Kuang-wei farms and villages were surprisingly numerous. 
One wonders where the people find arable soil in sufficiency to 
supply their wants, for much of the plain on this side of the 
Yellow River is covered with ochre-colored sand, which is forever 
drifting in long and parallel ridges, gaining rapidly on the tilled 
land and often overturning the houses against whose walls it 
accumulates. I had noticed this yellow sand in a few spots in 
the Ordos, and could see no place there from which it could have 
come, now it would seem that it must have been blown 
there from west of Chung- wei, from the great " drifting sand " 
desert which there abuts on the Yellow River. 

1 killed two antelope just as we came to Kuang-wei and 
wounded a third, but did not have time to follow it up. These 
antelope {huang yang) are the only game we see, there have 
been no sand grouse since leaving San-tao ho-tzO, no hares, or 
pheasants, or ducks, though the river is free from ice in many 
places. 

We still have the Hsi shan a few miles on our right. These 
mountains are — here at least, of igneous formation, not over eight 
hundred feet high, and stretch as far west as the eye can reach. 

We stopped for the night in a tumble-down place called Ts'ao- 
yuan P'u which we reached long after dark. In the inn-yard 
were a number of the big-wheeled carts used throughout the 
Ordos and in some parts of Kan-su, and of which I have spoken 
previously. I learnt that they only cost 20 tiaos to build, or about 
fifteen Mexican dollars. 

January 22. — The road ran along the bank of the Yellow 
River. I failed to observe any gravel, nothing but loess, 
washed down here from higher levels. The river is very shoal, 
with numerous sand banks rising above its surface; it has a rapid 
current in places, and is, on an average, about two hundred and 
fifty yards in breadth. 

There is now going on a curious process of agriculture which- 
shows how little the Chinese understand saving of labor. The 
farmers dig up a large patch of the surface of each field, cart it 
back to their farm-yards and their let the clods of earth dry, when 
they take a mallet (or a stone hammer with an eye drilled through 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 47 

it in which to fix a long handle), and reduce it all to powder; with 
this is then mixed what manure they have been able to collect on 
the road, and this top dressing is laboriously carted back and 
spread over the field from which nine-tenths of its component 
parts were a few days before quite as laboriously taken away.* 

At Shih-kung-shih P'u, where we stopped for lunch, 1 heard that 
there was a cave temple with a colossal stone figure in it not over 
a mile or so to the north of the village. There are some ho-shang 
living in the temple, which is known by various names, Ta Fo 
ssu "Big Buddha Temple;" Shih Fo ssu, "Stone Buddha Temple," 
or Shih-kung (P'u) Ta ssu "the great temple of Shih-kung (P'u)." 

I suppose this is another specimen of the Toba dynasty cave 
temples, of which there are so many in northwestern China. I 
had been prompted to ask if there were cave temples near 
Shih-kung-shih P'u on seeing a long ledge of sandstone disposed 
in horizontal strata a short distance from our road, and on noticing 
a number of little niches in it like those I had seen in 1887 at 
Yung-k'an near Ta-t'ung Fu in north Shan-hsi.f Such cave 
temples are here called Fo-t'ung, "Buddha Caves," and I heard 
that they were very numerous. 

Just as we passed Sheng-chin-kuan tien, "the inn of the Sheng- 
chin barrier," I shot a big antelope buck, so we decided to stop 
over night in this lonely inn and have a good meal of antelope 
steak. The barrier {kuari) is about half a mile west of the 
inn, and is a good landmark as there is a tower {fun) on a point 
of rocks just behind it. The steak proved delicious, for I still had 
plenty of good butter bought at Ho-k'uo to cook it with, and the 
cook made some wheat cakes and with this, together with plenty 
of vermicelli {kua mieti) and good tea, I made quite a feast, while 
the wolves howled at a great rate outside the gate of the inn, 
attracted by the odor of the fresh meat. 

Jamiary 23. — The Hsi shan now bend a little north of west, 
but we saw little of them, for a strong northwest wind began to 
blow shortly after we started, and though there was no dust 

* A similar method of fertilizing the field is practiced in western Kan-su. See 
Land of the Lamas, 98. 

t Gerbillon mentions this latter famous temple. The Emperor K'ang-hsi, with 
whom he was traveling " mesura avec un de nos demi-cercles la plus grande des 
idoles qui occupe toute une grotte, at il la trouva haute de 57 Tche on pieds Chinois." 
Du Halde, op. cit., IV, 352. 



48 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET, 

where we were, the mountains were hidden in dense clouds of it. 
The mountains on the right bank of the Yellow River still run 
southwest by west and increase in height as we go west. The 
plain over which we traveled to-day was so flat that we never got 
a glimpse of the river, though it was not over a mile or two at the 
utmost from the road. 

We reached Chung-wei Hsien by two o'clock and stopped in 
the east faubourg in a fairly good inn, The faubourg is not large, 
but quite busy. I noticed some factories (in rooms twelve feet 
square !) of water-pipe tobacco — and this, I learnt, is one of the 
chief industries of the place — flour and grain shops, dry goods, 
blacksmith shops and the usual variety of trades met with in this 
part of the world, take up the business quarter of this town.* 

The Mohammedan bakers of Chung-wei make delicious rolls 
{k'ou-kuei), and I bought good potatoes and eggs, so I will speak 
nothing but praise of such a place. Coal is brought here from a 
distance of four or five days to the south, and it costs (at least I 
had to pay for it) 12 cash a catty. 

I laid in a supply of food sufficient to last me to Lan-chou, for 
until we reach that city, eight or nine days hence, nothing can 
be bought on the road, and when a Chinese says there is nothing 
to be bought in the way of food, one must understand it 
literally. 

January 24.. — It was 8.30 before we got off from Chung-wei, 
rather too late, as the day's march proved a long one, and it was 
nearly midnight when we reached its end. A couple of miles 
beyond the city we came to a big irrigation canal on the farther 
side of which are the ruins of a branch of the Great Wall, which 
now only imperfectly opposes the inroads of the vast sea of yellow 
sand on its outer side stretching as far as one can see in endless 
hillocks perpendicular to the direction of the prevailing northwest 
wind.f 

* Hue gives us to understand that he only took three days to go from Ning-hsia to 
Chung-wei. This is certainly wrong as the distance between these two cities is nearly 
one hundred and twenty miles. He says {op. ciL, II, 21) of Chung-wei " sa prop- 
rete, sa bonne tenue, son air d'aisance, tout contraste singulierement avecla misere et 
la laideur de Ning-Hia ; a en juger seulement par les innombrables boutiques, toutes. 
tres-bien achalandees, et par la grande population qui incessamment encombre les rues, 
Tchong-Wei est une villetres-commerfante." 

f Hue apparently did not follow the river but took straight across the sand hills to 
Chang-liu-shui. Hue, op. cit., 11, 21-23. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 49 

In this sea of sand ridge follows ridge, and of such uniform 
color is the whole scene that all idea of distance is lost, and one 
cannot tell if a hillock is a hundred yards or two miles away. 
The wall appears to have been made of successive layers of well 
beaten loess, and never to have had a facing of brick or stone. 
It is about six feet broad at the top and fifteen feet high. Outside 
the wall, some hundred yards, are stone watch towers against 
which the sand is heaped up at least thirty feet high. 

After about a mile through these "liquid sands," as the Chinese 
call them, we came to the bank of the Yellow River, here at 
least one hundred and fifty feet below the surrounding country. 
No ice was to be seen on it for several miles in either direction, as 
it sweeps out in a swift eddying current of a gorge in a range of 
red sandstone mountains to the west. Little log rafts were 
coming down the stream loaded with coal for the Chung-wei 
market, or carrying travelers from Chung-wei across to a little 
village on the right bank at the base of the steep, rugged moun- 
tains, which here rise some fifteen hundred to eighteen hundred 
feet above the plain. 

We followed the river bank till we reached Sha-pa (or Sha-po)* 
at the mouth of a gorge which bears the same name. Here begin 
the big irrigation canals which supply the Chung-wei plain with 
water, and here also travelers journeying westward usually get 
taken up beyond the gorge, they, their carts and animals, in a 
big, flat boat kept there for the purpose at government expense. 

We found only three boatmen at Sha-pa and were told that it 
would take half a day to get the others here, as travel along this 
side of the river being unusual in winter, they had gone to 
Chung-wei. We consequently decided to try and get the carts 
through the gorge, the boatmen agreeing to carry on their backs 
my instruments and more valuable belongings, for it was more 
than probable that the carts would get upset a few times on the 
way. The sands have flowed over the hills in the gorge and reach 
to the river banks, where rocks and ice are piled up, so that cart 
travel seemed next to impossible. It took us over two hours 
to make the two miles around the loop which the river here 
describes, lifting the carts over the rocks, unloading and reloading 
them repeatedly, and doubling up the teams to pull them out of 
the soft sands in which they sunk to the axles. 

*Sha po apparently means " Sand hill." The hamlet is at the foot of high hills of 
sand. 



50 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

I noticed in this gorge that the water does not rise in flood more 
than ten feet above its present low water level. The rocks com- 
posing the hills on either side are of red sandstone and gneiss. 
Near the upper end of the gorge on the south side of the river, 
are several coal mines, before the mouths of which were piles of 
coke, burnt at the mouth of the mines and carried down the river 
on little rafts, similar to those we had seen earlier in the day. 

Leaving the river here, we traveled due west up a valley in 
which we passed but one small village, and then going over some 
hills, where the soft sand gave us much trouble (it took us four 
and a half hours to travel the last three miles), we reached Chang- 
liu-shui, where we found accommodations for the night. It was 
one o'clock before I ate my bowl of rice and mutton and laid down 
for the night, thoroughly worn out. 

January 25. — We continued in a slightly west-by-north direc- 
tion, first up a loess gorge, then over red sandstone gravel 
and finally over a brush-covered plain, till we came to a series of 
sand dunes running west-northwest. Over these we slowly 
plodded till we reached a miserable hamlet called 1 wan ch'uan, 
or " Myriad Springs," a grim joke of doubtful taste, as water has 
to be hauled here from four miles away, and the surrounding sand 
hills produce nothing but a little brush. 

The road improved a little for the next twelve miles to the west 
of this place, leading through deep cuts in the loess, but not a 
drop of water was there anywhere, and only occasionally a little 
brush relieved the awful barrenness of the land. 

We stopped for the night at another miserable post-station 
which had the appropriate name of Kan t'ang-tzu, "the dry 
station,"* for water is brought here from a distance of ten miles, 
probably from the Yellow River. 

We did not see a single cart to-day, though old cart tracks 
were occasionally crossed. The road is not suitable for them, 
the sands are too heavy and fodder is too scarce; it is, however, 
an ideal camel road, nothing to eat but brush, nothing to drink 
and plenty of soft sand for the feet. We passed a few small 
caravans of camels and mules going to Chung -wei, carrying water- 

* Hue's Kao-Tan-Dze " village repoussant et hideux au dela de toute expression 
* * * Les habitants de Kao-Tan-Dze sent obliges d'aller chercher I'eau a una 
distance de soixante lis (six lieues). Hue, op. cit., 11, 24. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 51 

pipe tobacco {shui yen), beans, hides and wool. In places red 
sand has been blown over the ochre-colored kind, so that it looked 
as if there were great streaks of blood on the ground. Fortunately 
for us we have had no wind of late, for in such a country 
the gentlest breeze would raise such clouds of dust and sand that 
it would make travel impossible. 

The road from Ning-hsia to Lan-chou on the other side of the 
river, though much longer than that we are following (it takes 
eighteen to twenty days, 1 hear, to go over it), is from all accounts 
very much better, and is usually taken by travelers; I am not 
aware that any foreigner has ever traveled over it. 

January 26. — To-day has been one of comparative rest, we 
have only gone seventeen miles to Ying-pan shui (or fei, as the 
last syllable is locally pronounced).* The route all the way led 
along the southeast side of a range of hills between five hundred 
and eight hundred feet high, which cut our route a little beyond 
Ying-pan shui. A little brackish stream flowing southeast passes 
by this hamlet. There are here the ruins of quite a fine temple 
and of other substantial buildings, but only two or three very poor 
inns are now standing, in one of which we found a very imperfect 
shelter for the night. The Yellow River is about 70 li southeast 
of here, and the roads to Liang-chou and Ping-fan Hsien branch 
off from that we are following a few miles beyond here to the 
southwest. 

To-day there was a strong wind for a while, and shortly before 
it struck us 1 saw a red mist (or dust) rise along the base of the 
hills on our right. Throughout these barren regions the winds or 
the strong currents of air observable in the winter months in the 
middle of the day, follow very narrow and well-defined tracks; 
they are especially strong along the base of hills, where the air is 
most heated and radiation greatest. 

January 2j. — We trudged up and down over endless little hills 
of sandstone formation, the offshoots of the main range which 
runs a few miles to our right in a south-southwest direction. 
The face of the country to our west was covered with such a maze 
of hills that 1 could not determine their general direction, which 
appeared, however, to be southwest and northeast. 

*On the Chinese dialect of Kan-su, see Dr. J. Edkins in China Review, XVll, 
174, et seq. A Ying pan is a small walled camp. 



52 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

There is a total absence of water hereabout; in summer there 
is probably a little water to be found in hollows, but the people 
say the country is a dry one. It is strange to find such an arid 
belt of land so near a section of Kan-su, which is reported to be 
one of the wettest on the face of the globe. Liang-chou, Kan- 
chou and the adjacent districts have, from all accounts, quite as 
heavy a rainfall as parts of southern Japan, and Liang-chou is only 
six days travel from Ying-pan shui. 

Some twelve or fourteen miles southwest of Ying-pan shui we 
came to Ch'ing ngai-tzu where the ruins of temples, ya-mens, 
etc., bore proof of the former existence of a large village. 

Now there are only three or four families living there, keeping 
inns and pasturing little bunches of sheep. The owner of one of 
the inns told me that all the country was well tilled until during the 
Mohammedan rebellion, about thirty years ago, the villages were 
destroyed and the people driven from their homes. 

Eleven miles beyond this place we crossed the Great Wall and 
five miles further on came to the village of I-tiao shan. The Great 
Wall at this point runs across the valley from the base of the hills 
on one side to the same point on the other. It is of loess mud, 
twenty feet high, with detached truncated-cone shaped towers 
along its inner side every few hundred yards and distant about a 
hundred yards from the wall. 1 cannot conceive of what use they 
can have been, certainly not as signal towers, nor can they have 
added to the strength of the wall or its powers of resisting attacks. 

The head of a criminal in a little cage tied to the end of a pole 
greeted us as we entered 1-tiao shan. This hamlet is quite a fine 
place for these parts, with a couple of shops and several large inns. 
It is the largest place we have seen since leaving Chung-wei. 

January 28. — At I-tiao shan cultivation of the soil begins again, 
and with it sand grouse which seem, like our quail, to be 
never found in large numbers away from cultivated fields, 
reappear. The fields are irrigated and at Suan-huo P'u, a village of 
some pretension a few miles south of 1-tiao shan,* we crossed a 
large ditch with a clear stream flowing down it, the first running 
water we have seen since leaving the Yellow River. Another 
criminal's head exposed in a cage grinned at us as we passed here. 

* This must be the 5ame village as Hue's San-Yen-Tsin, although he says that that 
village was only a few paces inside the wall. {.Op. cit., II, 29.) Hue left the high- 
road here and went direetly to Ping-fan Hsien. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 53 

Our road led through a complicated system of low sandstone 
hills, about one hundred and fifty feet high, with a dip of about 
twenty degrees southwest, and a little beyond them rises a higher 
range of the same formation. The range to our left is apparently 
more thickly covered with loess than that on our right, but it is 
so low 1 got but a poor idea of it. None of these hills are over 
five hundred feet in height. 

We stopped for tea at Ta-la P'u. The people were everywhere 
preparing for the New Year, pasting up new mottoes, baking 
cakes (mo-mo) and bread {man-fou) in great quantities, killing pigs 
and rigging up swings. The custom of swinging at New Year is 
observed over all northern China. In Korea also, this custom 
obtains during certain feasts, but a little later in the year.* 

We stopped for the night at Chung ch'ang-tzii; this place is, I 
am told, 170 li from Ping-fan Hsien and seven days from Hsi-ning 
by the direct road, and Lan chou is distant from it 270 li, or three 
days' journey by the route we are following. Between Ta-la P'u 
and this place there has been a great deal of prospecting for coal. 
The water, even here in the hills, is terribly brackish, in fact since 
leaving Kalgan we have only found sweet water in two or three 
places. 

January 2g. — A few miles above Chung ch'ang-tzu we crossed 
a low col and entered a valley which has been at one time well 
cultivated, but where now ruins, fallow fields and half filled irriga- 
tion ditches are all that tell of its former prosperity. 

Below Sha-ho ching, the first village we passed through, the 
valley broadens rapidly, and farms and villages were visible on every 
side; along the road the latter follow each other with hardly any 
interruption. The particular feature of this section is that the soil 
is composed of alternate and very thin layers of loess and gravel; 
and so the farmers cover the light loess with a thin layer of stones; 
this is especially the custom where the poppy is raised. It keeps 
the moisture in the soil and prevents the light soil being blown 
away.f Water here is only found at considerable depths, the 
wells, from which the whole supply is procured, are from one 
hundred and fifty to two hundred feet deep, and the water is 

*ln Nipal swinging, as well as kite flying, is popular during the Dassera feast 
(t. e., beginning of October). H. A. Oldfield, Sketches from Nipal, II, 351. 
t See also on this custom under date of February j. 



54 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

very brackish. Drawing water from these wells is a tedious 
operation, as small wicker buckets* are used and the rope has 
to be dragged up by a large number of men. 

Bands of horses and mules were seen here feeding in the 
stubble fields, and I heard that mule raising was an important 
business hereabout. 

At Liu-t'un-tzu where we stopped for the night, the inn keeper 
was so busy with his New Year's preparations that he practically 
ignored us and let us understand that he was obliging us by 
admitting us to his hovel. Fortunately for us he was poor and 
could not indulge in a profusion of pyrotechnics, so the night 
passed quietly and there was little wine-drinking and riotous 
living. 

Jamiary JO. — The hills grew slightly higher as we advanced 
south, attaining possibly four hundred feet. The whole country 
was of loess, and as the valley we followed (which attains no- 
where more than four hundred yards in width) was not exposed 
to the full violence of the north and northwest winds, the people 
do not have to cover their fields with stones. Water is evidently 
scarce, for 1 noticed reservoirs dug in the soil in which the water 
from the hills is stored and drawn from when needed as from 
a well. At Shui-pei ho water is nearer the surface than at 
Liu-t'un-tzu; the wells were not over twenty to thirty feet deep. 
Shortly before reaching Shui-pei ho the characteristic vertical rifts 
in the loess were again seen. 

I remarked to-day on detached monticules, the ruins of little 
forts. They reminded me of those Francois Gamier saw in Yun- 
nan similarly situated. Probably they were built at the time 
of the Mohammedan rebellion. 1 have seen others like them near 
Lusar and Hsi-ning. 

It is curious that while the Chinese attach great importance to 
having their houses face the true south, very few really do. The 
compass is far from being in common use among them, and 
hardly any can find the polar star, though most of them can 
point out Ursa Minor {Pet sheng). I have been asked hundreds 
of times if a house were straight {cheng) or not, and the owner's 
disgust has always been great when I have shown him by my 
compass that it was not, 

* Wicker buckets are used all over northern China for this purpose. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 55 

January ji. — From Shui-pei ho to the Yellow River in front of 
Lan-chou, the road led through an uninterrupted succession of 
loess hills, the highest — those nearest the river, rising about six 
hundred feet. The greater part of the way was down a deep cut 
in the loess, which here rests on river gravel. 

We crossed the river, which is here about three hundred yards 
broad, on the ice (the bridge of boats is withdrawn in winter), 
or as the Chinese call it, on an "ice bridge" {ping chHao)* 
Entering the city by one of the " water gates," we passed through 
a labyrinth of foul, muddy streets, then out by the southern gate 
and finally drew up in front of the house of my old friend, the 
Cure of Lan-chou, Monsieur de Meester with whom I had stayed 
when on my first journey to Tibet. f The reception from the good 
father was the cordial, whole souled one I have always felt sure 
of receiving from a Catholic missionary in China, and the rest of 
the day was passed telling each other what we had done since 
last we had met two years ago. 

February i. — Part of the day has been passed rearranging my 
boxes, so that they may be all of about equal weight and of proper 
size to be packed on mule-back. I find the Japanese baskets I 
bought in Yokohama most convenient. Made of bamboo and 
very light, the tops fit over the bottoms so that the contents can 
be added to or decreased without danger of their being shaken up; 
they are admirable for rough traveling. I have had them lined 
with water-proof cloth and covered with leather. As they are 
pliable they can be tied securely to a pack-saddle and can stand 
lots of rough handling. 

* Father Grueber visited Lan-chou Fu towards 1662. Though the city is not 
mentioned by name, there can be no doubt that it was of it he spoke when he said 
that, after crossing the Karamuren by a fine bridge of boats they entered a very large 
city. " 11 y avoit (ifi) des fiUes de joye d'une grande beaute. Quoique les filles du 
Khatai soient belles communement, neanmoins elles sont la plus belles qu'ailleurs, 
la ville pour ce sujet s'appelle la ville de beaute." Thevenot, Relation de divers 
voyages, 11, IV Partie, p. 5. The word Lan may effectively have the meaning of 
"beauty." Lan-hsing means "a beautiful appearance." And the Persians who 
visited Lan-chou two hundred years earlier also wrote that it was remarkable for the 
beauty of its women, inasmuch that it was known as the City of Beauty (Husnabad). 
Embassy of Shah Rukh, in Yule's Cathay and the Way Thither " (Hakluyt 
Soc); 1, CCIV. 

t Land of the Lamas, p. 33 et seq. 



56 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

Mons. de Meester says that the misery in Kan-su is on the 
increase. This is not solely attributable to the drought, but to the 
use of opium and general absence of enterprise and energy. At 
Lan-chou this winter the public soup kitchens {chou chang) have 
fed over six thousand people, while last year there were not half 
that many applicants for relief. 

Opium cultivation and opium smoking are increasing at a rapid 
rate.* At Liang-chou, for example, they count eight lamps {^yen 
feng) for every ten persons; here at Lan-chou it is nearly as bad. 
It would be wrong to imagine that the native Kan-suites {pen-ti 
jen) are responsible for the increased consumption of opium, it is a 
result of the rapid and overwhelming influx of Ssu-ch'uanese into 
the province. I do not think I am exaggerating when I say that 
they form a fifth of the whole population of Kan-su; in the 
southern portions they are much more numerous than elsewhere, 
around Hui Hsien, and the warmer and more fertile districts 
especially. They take the trade, wholesale and retail, and have 
energy, the one essential thing the Kan-suites are lacking in. 

There are three or four Chan-t'ou (Turkestanis)t here selling 
raisins, rugs, etc., and also seven or eight Koreans with ginseng. 
These latter people visit the remotest corners of China. In '89 
there was one at Ta-chien-lu, where he kept an inn. 

The New Year's festivities are progressing as gayly as if the 
past year had been a most prosperous one. The noisiest feature 
is the beating of the yang ko ku, "the country song drum," a 
long cylindrical drum which is slung in front of the player by a 
band passing over his shoulder, and on which he beats furiously 
with a short bit of knotted cable (or something resembling it). 
Drums of like shape, but smaller, are usually carried by the 
wandering stilt-wearing singers one often sees in northern China. 
To-day processions are marching about the town, some beating 
gongs and others banging with might and main on yang ko ku. 

* Du Halde says that the trade of Lan-chou consisted in his time in hides from 
Tartary which came by way of Hsi-ning and To-pa, and in woolen stuffs (Jung) of 
which he names five varieties. Du Halde, op. cit., I, 213. 

fGrijimailo, in Proc. Roy. Geog. Soc. XIII, 210 and 226 speaking of these Chan-t'ou 
says " The descendants of those Uighurs (of Pichan, Lukchin and Turfan), a people 
known by the name of Chen-tu, allied to the Sarts of westem Turkestan » * * " 
I think he is wrong in imagining that Chan-t'ou is the name of a nation or tribe, it 
applies, as I have shown elsewhere, to all Turkestanis or even Kashmiris. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 57 

I am told that the fai-p'ing ku* familiar to residents of Peking, is 
also known here, but I have seen none. 

The Kan-su people are literally wild on the subject of official 
hats ; for the most futile reason they don the kuan mao, they and 
all their male progeny down to children of eight or ten years of 
age. This and the big-sleeved jacket or kua-tzic are indispensable 
here, if one would look respectable when making a call, or per- 
forming any duty to the living or to the dead. To-day every one, 
down to the poorest coolie who has not perhaps much more than 
a breach clout to cover his nakedness, sports an official hat. 

The famous Ho-nan anti-Christian and anti-foreign placards and 
pamphlets have been scattered broadcast over Kan-su, brought 
here, it is rumored, by the nephew of the Governor General Yang 
(who is a Ho-nan man, by the way). Liu's now famous book 
Kuei chiao kai sha, " The devil's doctrine must be destroyed," has 
been brought here by the cart load. The pictures in which Jesus 
is represented as a " wild hog " ( Yeh-chu) or a " heavenly hog " 
{Vien chii) f were torn down from off the high street by quiet 
little Mons. de Meester and taken by him to the Tsung-tu who 
was obliged to take action in the matter, and so an anti-Christian 
riot in Lan-chou was averted. 

February 2. — I called on Graham Browne of the China Inland 
Mission whom 1 had met here before in '89. He, his wife, children 
and two lady assistants are very comfortably installed in the city. 
He very kindly offered to arrange for me with a Chinese bank to 
have a telegraphic transfer of some funds made from a Chinese 
bank in Shanghai to its branch office here. Such an operation has 
never been done, but that is no reason why it should not be now. 
He told me that on the Ta-t'ung ho not far from Ping-fan Hsien, 
at the ferry about 20 li from the mouth of the river (which is at 
Hsiang-t'ang), there was a Lo-lo Ch'eng inhabited by a people 
of peculiar language and having a chief ( Wang) of their own. 
This locality would be well worth a visit; it would be interesting 
to ascertain whether these Lo-lo are a northern branch of the 
Ssij-ch'uanese race of the same name. 

* A species of tambourine, in shape like a large fan. On the handle are a number 
of iron rings. A light flexible rod is used as a drum-stick and the rings are rattled at 
the same time that it is beaten. 

t Poor puns on the word "Jesus " ( Yeh-su) and " Lord of heaven " ( Tien-cku). 



58 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

I hear that Polhill-Tumer of the China Inland Mission, whom I 
knew at Lusar in '89, when he was studying Tibetan in hope of 
being able to preach the Word to the Tibetans, has gone to Sung- 
pan T'ing with his wife, thinking that he might more readily gain 
access to Tibet from that point. It is the worst point he could 
have chosen, as the Golok country is between him and his goal, 
and unless he makes friends with the Sharba and travels with them, 
he cannot hope to get very far.* He had tried to strike out pre- 
viously from Kuei-te, but that place has the same disadvantage as 
Sung-pan, Panakasum and Golok bar the road to the west. 

I saw to-day on the street a criminal wearing the heavy cangue 
and tattooed! on his left temple with the crime for which he was 
suffering punishment. He belonged to the chun liu chien fan 
class of convicts or exiles to 6,000 li from their homes. 

There is a religious sect (some say Mohammedan) in Kan-su, 
especially numerous near Liang-chou, and called Chushih. These 
people are vegetarians, but of their doctrines 1 can learn nothing, 
nor have 1 met with any members of the sect. 

I have been making inquiries concerning the population of Lan- 
chou and the results are rather bewildering. Graham Browne 
puts it at four hundred thousand at the lowest, de Meester at 
eighty thousand, and some Chinese merchants (bankers and 
tobacco factory owners) at between fifty and sixty thousand. 

February 3. — Coming back from the Hsieh-t'ung-ch'ing Bank 
where 1 had gone to get my money, I met the Ying-ch'un or 
" welcoming spring " procession returning from outside the east 
gate of the city and on its way to the temple of the local god. 
A man disguised as a woman led the .procession and another in a 
similar disguise followed riding a donkey. This latter, I was told 
impersonated the imperial princess who first introduced into China 

* Since writing the above a Miss Taylor, a member of the China hiland Mission, has 
passed through the Golok country, reached Jyakundo and pushed on towards 
Lh'asa as far as the Naach'uk'a country, where she was stopped and forced to return 
to Ta-chien-lu. 

■f This punishment is a recognized one throughout China, but unless one visits one 
of the remote provinces of the empire, to which such criminals are exiled, one would 
never see persons thus marked. Tattooing is not practiced to any extent among the 
Chinese as a means of decorating the person. 1 have seen a few men with dots 
picked on their arms and hands, but they had lived with foreigners or traveled 
abroad. To tattoo is called chen hua, " to draw with a needle, to prick a pattern." 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 59 

the custom of binding women's feet. Then came a lot of men 
disguised as foreigners and red bearded ruffians. Men beating the 
yang-ko ku and gongs followed these, and finally came a cow 
drawn by some fifty men pulling on two long ropes. The cow 
was of wicker work, covered with clay of a reddish brown color, 
about six feet high and eight or ten feet long and a red gown 
covered the body. Altogether it was a poor show, but a very 
noisy one.* 

I have decided to leave for Hsi-ning on the fifth, and have hired 
six mules for fifteen taels, one a saddle mule for myself. They 
will go as far as Lusar (Kumbum). 

I hear that small hazel nuts grow in the mountains south of Lan- 

chou. They are called mo {mao ?) chen-tzu. Wild hops (ma-ku 

yen) grow in the warmer southwestern, part of the province near 

Hui Hsien. The Belgian missionaries at Liang-chou make good 

beer with them. 

The western wind which blows so violently down the Yellow 
River valley and is called here Huang feng, or "Yellow (river) 
wind," is felt from Su-chou, Kan-chou, Liang-chou to Lan-chou, 
but not to the south of the latter place. It follows the Nan shan. 

I have noted previously the peculiar custom of covering the 
fields in which the poppy is raised with pebbles. I now learn that 
these pebbles are changed every year, and that this is necessary 
because "they lose their moisture." 

There is some small trade carried on between this place and 
India, vid llchi, Kashgar and Sa-chou. Hindoo traders have 
reached this place, and Graham Browne told me one can buy 
Indian goods in the shops. 

*ln some of its features this festivity reminds one of the Nipalese Gaijatra or " cow 
festival." See H. A. Oldfield, Sketches from Nipal, II, 299-303. Carter Stent, 
Chin. Engl. Vocabulary, 714, says "At the 'welcoming spring,' all the local 
magistrates, with their escorts, go in procession carrying a gaudily painted image of 
a cow — each color is symbolical, if yellow predominates, the crops will be plentiful; 
red, conflagrations will take place; white, floods; black, sickness; and blue, war. 
This is followed by the god T'ai-sui; who, if bareheaded, is symbolical of heat; 
with the cap on, cold; if he wears shoes, much rain; barefooted, dry weather. The 
procession marches to the eastward to receive the spring and returns to the local god's 
temple to worship, each official afterwards going to his own office. At the 
magistrate's office a dinner has been prepared called Ch'un yen 'the spring banquet,' 
this, after the magistrate has dined, is taken by the people. Theatricals and merry- 
making also take place." 



6o JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

February ^. — To-day is li ch'un, "the beginning of spring," 
and the cow I saw yesterday triumphantly hauled through 
the streets was knocked to pieces and farmers began sowing 
seed. 

The famous woolen factory built by the former Governor 
General Tso, is now a school of telegraphy under a Shanghai 
Chinese called Wang. I hope it will cost the government less to 
turn out an operator than it did to make a blanket, but I doubt it. 
The telegraph line was brought into this city from Hsi-an Fu last 
year and reaches now to Liang-chou, Su-chou, and as far as 
Chia-yil kuan, I believe. It is only used by the government; 
merchants do not believe in it, or rather in the honesty and trust- 
worthiness of the government operators; they do not wish them 
to know too much about their business relations for fear of 
exactions, and rightly enough, I fancy. 

I am told that all the Prefects {Chih-hsien) of Lan-chou (which 
by the way is ofificially known as Kao-lan Hsien) desire, after 
filling the office for a short time, to be relieved, for the expenses 
they have to incur here are very great and the perquisites very 
small. The Governor General gets all the squeezes for himself 1 
have no doubt. 

This afternoon the muleteers tied the loads on the frames which 
fit over the pack-saddles, so to-morrow morning we will be able 
to get off without delay. 

February 5. — We left at eleven o'clock for Hsi-ning. Just 
outside the west gate of the city there is over the torrent which 
comes down from the southern hills a fine log bridge of the 
cantilever kind. This type of bridge is everywhere met with in 
Tibet, but this is the first one of the kind one sees in this direction 
when coming from China. 

The Great Wall crosses to the right bank of the Yellow River 
eight miles west of the city and follows the valley on this side till 
near Ho Chou. It is known here, as in Chih-li, as the Pien ch'eng, 
or "frontier wall." 

I got on the way a good photograph of one of the water-wheels 
used to raise the water from the river to the irrigation ditches. 
The one represented in this photograph is about seventy-five 
feet in diameter, and is not the largest one by any means. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 6 1 

They look clumsy but are very serviceable ; hardly any iron is used 
in making them.* 

1 reached Hsin-ch'eng at 7.30 P. M., and got a warm reception 
from Father van Belle and a Friday's meal — cold tea, dry bread 
and lard, used in place of butter. This is the usual style of living 
among Catholic missionaries. Among the Protestants, Crossette 
and James Gilmour tried it and consequently both were looked 
upon as "cranks" by their brethren, the former especially who 
lived for years an ideal Christian life, having no cares for the 
morrow, providing himself with neither raiment nor food and 
giving all to the poor. 

Gold is found in the hills near Hsin-ch'eng; a couple of years 
ago a nugget was picked up by a peasant which he sold for 70 
taels of silver. The consequence was that half the population got 
the gold fever in a malignant form for a twelve month; now, 
fortunately, they have recovered. 

Hsin-ch'eng is inhabited by between four and five hundred 
families, over one hundred of which are Christian. When the 
Belgian mission was established in Kan-su a number of Christian 
families were discovered living here, and in the neighborhood — 
refugees from Shen-hsi they were, so a father was sent to live with 
them and weed all heresies and irregularities from out their midst. 
This was probably filling a long felt want, for these Christians had 
been ordaining priests without a bishop and these had in turn been 
baptising, administering the sacraments, etc., etc., probably in a 
highly irregular way. 

February 6. — Crossing the Yellow River on the ice near the 
mouth of the Hsi ho (or Hsi-ning Ho), we reached Ho tsui-tzu, 
thirty miles from Hsin-ch'eng at 6 p. m. There seems to be a 
good deal more ground under cultivation than when first I visited 
this valley in '89. Most of the soil is given up to poppy culture, 
and is covered with gravel, as around Lan-chou. This mode of 
protecting the soil is also used when melons are grown, but not 
for grain crops. 

I noticed to-day a great many small caves dug in the cliffs on 
the north side of the Hsi ho valley near its mouth. The muleteers 
said that they were made in the troubled times of the Mohammedan 

* St. G. R. Littledale also photographed this water-wheel and reproduced it in his 
paper in the Geographical Journal, III, 467. 



62 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

rebellion to serve as refuges. They appear inaccessible, but may 
not have been so twenty-five years ago, or they may have been 
reached by ropes from above, or they may not have been refuges 
at all and only have resulted from the crumbling of strata of gravel 
between the loess and the lower red sandstone. 

In the inn at Ho tsui-tzu were a number of mules carrying beans 
from Hsi-ning to Han-chung in Shen-hsi. The trip occupies a 
month, two months in fact the muleteers say, but then they rest 
repeatedly and for days at a time on the way. 

February 7. — We reached to-day Hsiang-t'ang, twenty-five 
miles from Ho tsui-tzu, at the mouth of the Ta-t'ung river. Quite a 
crowd of people came into the inn to see me and among them 
was a Salar. He gave me a number of words in his native 
language and was very communicative and intelligent, though 
without education. He said the Salar number many tens of 
thousands and that the term Salar pa kun means "the eight 
thousand Salar families" or "the eight Thousands of the Salar." 
His people came in past centuries, he knows not when, from 
some place in the west. 

Hsiang-t'ang is largely inhabited by people of mixed T'u-jen 
origin who came here from Bayan rong. These people have 
distinctly Tibetan features, more noticeable in the young people. 
They have no longer any language of their own but use a Chinese 
patois in which a few Mongol, Tibetan and possibly Salar words 
are to be found. Most of them understand Salar and a little 
Tibetan. There are some seventy Mohammedan families living 
here and the place took sides with the rebels in the late rebellion. 

Potanin says somewhere that Li K'o-yung was buried here.* I 
can hear nothing concerning him, nor are there any ruins of any 
great antiquity, certainly none of the eighth century in which 
he lived. I fancy however, that Potanin must have had some 
good authority for his statement. 

February 8. — To-day we reached Kao miao-tzia (28.5 miles) 
and put up in an inn outside the west gate. I was struck while 
going through the " great gorges " ( Ta-hsid) with the correctness 
of Hue's remarks about the danger of traveling through them.f 

* Froc. Roy. Geo. Sac, IX, 234. Li-ko-yung was a famous commander in the 
latter part of the T'ang dynasty. He died in A. D. 908. See W. F. Mayers, Chinese 
Reader's Manual, 117. {Sub voce Li K'eh-yung.) 

t Hue, op. ciL, 11, 53. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 63 

His memory served him badly however, for he speaks of the 
danger of the " little gorges," {Hsiao hsia) which are nearer Hsi- 
ning, whereas he should have said the great gorges. The Ta-hsia 
are really very dangerous, in many places along some ten miles of 
road, the bridle path is between two hundred and three hundred 
feet above the river which roars over rocks at the bottom of the 
cliffs in the side of which the path is cut. Land and rock slides 
are of continual occurrence, and the rocky path is so slippery that 
one has to be very careful in traveling along it. 

Kao miao-tzu is quite a large walled village with a number of 
shops and inns, but, as every where in this country, not one of 
the latter is even passably clean. We put up in a Mohammedan 
inn outside the west gate. Around the yard a number of men 
were loafing, among them a red gowned, long haired Bonbo lama, 
the first I have seen in these parts. One of the servants in the inn 
is an Ahon (Mohammedan priest), and my boy, who is well up 
in the Koran, had a match with him in reciting verses of the 
sacred book, each of the contestants giving in turn the first phrase 
of a certain passage and asking the other to finish it. Their pro- 
nunciation of Arabic was not so bad that I could not understand 
a little here and there. There are about twenty Mohammedans 
living in this place, and probably one hundred and fifty families 
belonging to the ta chiao. 

February p. — The red, argillaceous sandstone characteristic of 
the Hsi ho basin as far west as the "little gorges" {Hsiao hsia), 
and which first crops up west of Hsin-ch'eng at the mouth of the 
Ping-fan ho valley, though possibly not identical in composition 
with the red sandstone of western SsQ-ch'uan, appears to me to 
belong to the same formation. The gravel and debris in the Hsi 
ho valley rise one hundred to two hundred feet above the river 
bed. 

The climatic conditions west of Lan-chou are perceptibly 
different from those farther east, cloudy days are in this season 
of frequent occurrence, and the weather throughout the year is 
milder (so said Father van Belle at Hsin-ch'eng). The evenings, 
ever since passing Hsin-ch'eng have been cloudy. I noticed 
these same peculiarities three years ago when first 1 passed along 
this route. 

We stopped for the night at Chang-ch'i-ts'ai (twenty eight miles 
from Kao miao-tzu). Speaking to some muleteers here, I heard 



64 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

that in the San-ch'uan* there live Chinese, T'u-jen and Mongols, 
the two latter races predominating. 1 heard from another source 
that these Mongols speak good Mongol, except when they count, 
when they have recourse to Chinese numerals. 

February lo. — I reached Hsi-ningFu at 2:30 p. M., after a very 
disagreeable ride in a strong east wind which kept us wrapped 
most of the way in dense clouds of dust. A few miles before 
reaching the Hsiao hsia ("little gorges") we passed by the 
temple of the White Horse (Pai ma ssu) and the village of the 
same name. Both are inhabited by T'u-jen. I fancy the temple 
is not long for this world ; it is built in a sandstone rock which is 
nearly completely detached from the main ledge and seems to be 
toppling over. 

At Hsi-ningf I was warmly welcomed by my old acquaintances 
and took up my lodgings at the same inn where 1 had passed 
many days in '89. Every one complained of business being bad. 
Though the crops hereabout are invariably good, lack of capital 
cripples the most enterprising, so that tradespeople can barely 
make both ends meet. The bovine pest, which has carried off 
in the last two years over two-thirds of the cattle of Chinese, 
Mongols and Tibetans, is still raging. Wool alone has more than 
doubled in price since '89 (it is now selling for 6 taels a picul of 
200 catties), t I cannot see where the profit comes in at this high 
rate, for it costs about 7 taels a picul to deliver it at Tientsin where 
it sells for not more than 10 taels. 1 bought a pretty pony for 
18 taels from Ch'i-hsiang, the same man who abandoned me in '89 

*The San-ch'uan is a district some twenty milessouth of this point and of peculiar 
interest to ethnologists. 

fYsbrandt Ides (1692), speaking of Hsi-ning says that "great numbers of 
Merchants come to the vast trading city of Zunning, in the Kingdom of Xiensi : 
and the Door of Commerce being for some time opened here, and liberty granted to 
them as well as Muscovites and Tartars to trade here, they have with their Wares 
and Trade, introduced the Mahometan Religion, which, as Weeds grow apace, is 
spread over all China, to that degree that there appears more of that accursed Seed 
than of the true Doctrine of Jesus Christ." The Three Years Land Travels of 
E. Ysbrandt Ides, p. 126. Further on he says that the people of Cambay 
(Gujarat), Bengal "and other subordinate countries" are those who chiefly resort 
to Zunning, bringing there diamonds, jewels, elephants' teeth, wax, etc. Ibid., p. 
196. 

X On this curious Chinese habit of counting two pounds as one, 10 taels as 7^, 
etc., see also under December 21, J8gi, and April 28, i8g2. 




Pai ma Ssu, "White Horse Temple," in Hsi-ning ho Valley. 



1 



4 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 65 

at Tankar to return home and get married.* Now he wants to go 
with me — to the end of the world if I see fit. Marriage in his case 
has probably proved a failure. 

There must be some Scotch blood in the Hsi-ningites, for I find 
they are very fond of oatmeal and of cracked wheat. The first is 
called yen-met ck'en and is eaten boiled with the water in which 
mutton has been cooked, or with neat's-foot oil {yang-t'i yu). 
The cracked wheat (mei-tzu fan) is eaten prepared in the same 
way, and is a very good dish.f 

February 11. — I rode to Lusar on my newly-purchased pony, 
a most agreeable change from the headstrong and iron-mouthed 
mule I had ridden all the way from Lan-chou Fu. Ch'i-hsiang 
accompanied me, and we joined outside of the gate a party 
of Hsi-fan lamas from a lamasery near Serkok, who were on their 
way to Kumbum for the feast of lanterns to be held the day after 
to-morrow (15th of first moon). The road was crowded with 
people all on the same errand, Hsi-fan, Mongols, Chinese and chiefly 
T'u-jen. 1 listened to the latter talk. Their language is, as I 
thought, a mixture of all the languages spoken in these parts. 
Why this hybrid people should have retained to the present day, 
though living in China proper, its tribal organization is difficult to 
explain, and speaks well for Chinese administrative methods which 
can admit of such a thing with no fear of trouble and perfect 
obedience to their laws. 

At Lusar (which name, by the way, is written Lu-sha-erh in Chi- 
nese) I received a very hearty welcome, for nearly every one in the 
village. knew me and hardly one failed to greet me as 1 passed 
with a Ta-jen lai-liao ("His Excellency has come!"). This 
time 1 have taken lodgings in an inn in the lower part of the 

*See Land of the Lamas, 117. 

t In winter fish are very cheapen the Hsi-ning and Tankar markets, two large ones 
sell in the latter place for a parcel of vermicelli (worth 30 cash). They are caught in 
lake Koko nor by the Mongols who make holes in the ice for that purpose. They are 
all of one variety, yellow-skinned and scaleless, I believe. They are called chin yu 
" goldfish." These fish are also sold split and dried, in which shape they are worth 
the same price as fresh and are known as kan pan-pan. Prjevalsky says of the fish 
of the Koko nor lake " The only kind offish that we saw was the Schizopygopsis 
nov. sp., which we captured ourselves; we heard that though there were many other 
species, owing to the badness of the nets they were rarely caught." Mongolia, 
II, 141. 



66 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

village, as my former quarters are occupied by traders come 
here for the fair. I am, however, much more comfortable than 
on my first visit. I have a large room of three chien* divided 
into sleeping, reception and dining compartments. Besides this I 
have on the other side of the court-yard a kitchen, with stabling 
for eighteen ponies, and rooms for my people on the second 
story, for which 1 am to pay $2 a month. 

Presents from old acquaintances pour in, the inn keeper brought 
me a sheep and one of my former followers, Ssu-shih-wu, some 
butter, cakes, chuoma,\ etc., etc. He declared his intention of 
accompanying me on this journey, as did also yesterday at Hsi- 
ning Miao san, the man whom I had to leave behind me in '89 at 
Jyakundo and who was, with Liu san, so roughly treated by the 
Derge lamas. J The willingness of these men to go with me has 
relieved me of the anxiety and uncertainty in which I had to live 
for six weeks on my first journey while trying to engage men to 
travel with me. 

To my delight I found a party of Salar muleteers stopping in 
the inn, and we were soon on friendly terms, especially after 1 had 
read them the few Salar words 1 had taken down at Hsiang-t'ang. 
Three of these men had thin oval faces, fine eyes and beautifully 
regular teeth. They were dressed in Chinese garb, but had noth- 
ing else Chinese about them. They all spoke fluently Chinese. 
Mongol and Tibetan. This knowledge they said is indispensable, as 
nearly the whole male population is occupied driving mules from 
Salar pa kun to Lusar or Labrang gomba and the neighboring 
country, either carrying freight or pilgrims (chiefly Mongols) of 
whom large numbers visit yearly the numerous lamaist sanctuaries 
scattered through the mountains. They told me that it took four 
days from here to reach the Salar settlements on the Yellow 
River, and two days from there to the great lamasery of Labrang. 
The word kun in pa-kun is, so they said, the Chinese fsun, "a 
village." II 

* A chien is the space between two consecutive pillars and rafters, and is usually 
about ten feet. The size of a room is counted in chien, a room of thirty feet is 
called a "three chien room." 

f The root of the Potentilla anserina, used throughout northwestern Mongolia 
and Tibet as a vegetable. 

X See Land of the Lamas, 223 and 297. 

II In another place I heard that the word kun is the equivalent of the Chinese 
chien hu "thousand families, a Thousand," and had the same meaning. See under 
date of February 22d. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 67 

February 12. — To-day I made a few purchases, mostly of the 
little odds and ends required in camp life. A number of people 
dropped in to see me and to find out what I had come here for 
this time. Towards noon I went over to Kumbum to see the fair, 
and try to pick up some curios. I found there quite a number of 
Lh'asa Tibetans (they call them Gopa here) selling pulo,* beads of 
various colors, saffron, medicines, peacock feathers, incense sticks, 
etc., etc. Among the medicines I saw pods of the Colocanthes 
indica (Blume) called in Tibetan tsampaka and in Chinese hsueh 
lien ("snow lotus "), probably because the seeds look like great 
snow flakes. 

I had a talk with these traders, several of whom I had met here 
before in '89. They were very friendly and jolly. One of them 
had a swastika {yung-drung)\ tattooed on his hand, and I learnt 
from this man that this was not an uncommon mode of ornamen- 
tation in his country. He said that one often sees at Lh'asa 
devotees {Atsara from India) with the three mystic syllables Om, 
A, Ham, tattooed on their persons — the first on the crown of the 
head, the second on the forehead, the third on the sternum. He 
was very much surprised, however, when 1 showed him an image 
of Sachya t'uba tattooed years ago in Japan on my arm. He 
would not believe it was tattooed, but insisted it was rang chyung 
("self produced," "come of itself"); I left him in this pleasant 
belief. K'amba were also quite numerous to-day, but on the 
whole the attendance was much smaller than in '89 on the same 
occasion. 

In the afternoon, while writing in my room, who rushed in but 
my faithful friend Yeh Chi-cheng (Yeh Hsien-sheng) my headman 
on my first journey. The good fellow had received news at 
Chen-hai P'u of my arrival, and had not lost a minute in coming 
to greet me. He said that if I wanted him, he would go with me 
anywhere I said, and that, at all events, he would only go home 
after 1 had finished the trip 1 proposed making to the Salar country. 

* Woven in pieces usually thirty feet long and about nine inches broad. The 
best kinds of this cloth come from Ulterior Tibet. The most popular colors are red, 
purple, striped and white with red and blue crosses stamped on it. It is used in China 
to cover saddles with or trim seats of carts. Pulo is the Chinese transcription of the 
Tibetan name of this cloth, /Va^. See Du Halde, op. cit., I. 53. 

t A hooked cross. It is a sacred symbol both among the Buddhists and the Bonbo. 



68 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

Of course I told him I wanted him, not only for that trip but for 
the whole of my journey; he is too good a man to let slip. 

Ssu-shih-wu later in the day brought me a fine Tibetan mastiff 
which I bought for a peck of tsamba and some tea. He had also 
a live lynx {skih-li) which a Hsi-fan had caught in the mountains. 
It was so fierce that I refused to take it as a present. 

In the evening the managers of the Hsiao-sheng huei* came 
and invited me to the performance to be held on the square this 
evening and on the two nights following. We were escorted to 
our seats by the managers carrying lanterns, and found sweets, 
water-melon seeds and samshu provided for us. The performance 
consisted of stilt- walking and masquerading, firing off of crackers, 
etc., etc., the usual tame and slip-shod performance seen all over 
northern China, but which here, as elsewhere, seems to afford the 
audience great pleasure. 

At a table near us were the likin office officials, and we vied 
with each other in liberality to the performers, each time they 
presented them with a string of cash we gave them two, and so 
it went on for over an hour, till the play has cost both parties some 
fifteen to twenty tiao, much to the delight of the managers and 
the disgust of the likin people who had not anticipated any one 
trying to outdo them in generosity. 

February 13. — (15th of ist moon) — Half of to-day was passed 
at Kumbum sauntering through the fair. I was surprised to see 
quite a large number of Bonbo lamas, recognizable by their huge 
mops of hair and their red gowns, and also from their being dirtier 
than the ordinary run of people. I heard that throughout this 
Amdo country they have numerous small lamaseries and that their 
belief is very popular among the T'u-fan. 

There appears to hang a certain mystery about the famous 
tsandan karpo, the ' ' white sandal wood tree " f sprung from 
Tsong-k'apa's hair. I now learn that the great and only original 

* The lads in every town and village of China give these theatrical performances 
at this time of the year. Hsiao sheng huei may be freely translated by " young 
men's amateur theatrical company." 

fin my Land of the Lamas, p. 67, following Lieut. Kreitner's suggestion, I re- 
marked that this tree was probably the Philadelphus coronarius. I have now learnt 
from Mr. W. B. Hemsley that the tree is the Syringa villosa, Vahl. Sarat Chandra 
Das, Narr. Journey to Lhasa in 1881-82, p. 91, makes mention of a juniper bush 
at Tashilhunpo sprung from the hair of Gedundrub the founder of that lamasery. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 69 

one, on the leaves of which images of the saint appear, is kept 
hidden away in the sanctum sanctorum of the Chin-wa ssia 
("golden tiled temple"), remote from the eyes of the vulgar 
herd. So it would seem that I have never seen it, though I have 
been shown four or five other ' ' white sandalwoods " in and around 
the lamasery. I learn, moreover, that the images on the leaves.bark, 
etc., only appear to those who have firm belief, and that the faith- 
less can distinguish nothing extraordinary on them. This, if true, 
is rough on Hue, who thought he detected the devil's hand in 
the miraculously produced images he perceived on the leaves of 
this tree. 

Some of the Gopa (Lh'asa traders) have their wives here with 
them. They were out to-day dressed in all their finery and 
looked remarkably well. Strapping big women they were, with 
ruddy cheeks and frank open faces, in green satin gowns, aprons 
of variegated pulo, shirts of raw silk {burS), silver charm boxes 
{gawo) on their breasts, and crowns of coral beads and turquoises 
on the top of their long loosely hanging black locks. 

In the Gold tiled temple in the northeast corner near the door is 
an impress in a chunk of sandstone of a human foot about eighteen 
inches long and two inches deep and said to be that of Tsong- 
k'apa. It is placed in a vertical position. On the top of the stone 
is a little wax; on this the people place a copper cash and then 
examine the footprint to ascertain their luck. If it is good, then 
bright spots will appear on the surface of the stone in the foot- 
mark. 

In the evening I again went to Kumbum, this time to " lang 
t'eng," as it is called here, anglici, to see the lanterns and the 
butter bas-reliefs. The latter were very good — better perhaps than 
those I saw in '89. In one of the largest ones the central portion 
of the design was a temple, and little figures of lamas and lay- 
men about eight to ten inches high were moving in and out 
of its portals.* Another new feature was musicians concealed 
behind curtains hanging around the bas-reliefs, who discoursed 
sweet (?) music on flutes, cymbals and hautboys. Four of the 
largest designs were in the style of the one just described, the 
others represented images of various gods inside of highly 

* When Hue saw this festival there were similar butter manikins. See Hue, op. 
cit., 11, 102. 



70 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

ornamented borders; in these the main figures were about four 
feet high. 

February 14.. — The fete is over and most of the visitors have 
gone. 1 also will soon be ready to leave, for 1 have already bought 
at least half of my outfit, including four stout ponies, for 70 taels. 
Saddles (of the Hsi-fantype) are being got ready for them, leather 
bags for tsamba, flour, rice, etc., have also been bought and 
filled, and if the money I am expecting from Lan-chou arrives, 1 
can start for Tibet three or four days after receiving it. 

The inn-keeper and a number of other persons got up for my 
benefit a Kuan-wu, a fencing, wrestling, single-stick, double 
sword, spear performance, which was really very good. The 
single stick and quarter-staff exercises were capital, and an 
old fellow of nearly sixty (an ex pao-piao-ti or " insurance-against 
brigand's-attack-agent ") went through some marvelously agile 
single stick and savate exercises, but his son was the hero of the 
entertainment. 

Things have nearly doubled in price since my first visit here. 
This is attributed to the smallness of the crops, but hats, boots, 
and cotton piece goods have increased proportionately as much as 
flour and rice. 

We have not had a perfectly cloudless day since leaving Lan- 
chou; in the mornings and early evenings there are always light 
clouds covering the sky, which disappear later on. Afternoon 
winds are also de rigueur. In these narrow valleys they appear 
cyclonic in their movement, but I have no doubt they are westerly 
to northwesterly, and are deflected to the northeast on striking 
the mountains a few miles to the south of here.* 

The population of Lusar is estimated at five hundred families 
(say two thousand souls), of which more than half is Moham- 
medan. There is a slight tendence to increase, but it is only due 
to the influx of Shen-hsi and Ssu-chu'an people, who here, as 
elsewhere, are ousting the native Kan-su people from most 
branches of trade. 

* Hail storms are very common here in the spring and summer. The Kaffir Chinese 
(non-Mohammedan ones) make little manikins, put a bow in their hands and 
place them in the position of shooting an arrow. These figures they put in the 
sixth moon (July to August) on the summits of the various beacon towers (tun) on 
the hilltops, where they are said to ward off the hail. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 71 

All the people here insist that there is no difference in race or 
language between the T'u-jen and T'u-ssu, but the Chinese are 
not observant about these matters and I doubt the correctness of 
this statement, though I am fain to admit that physically all these 
people (T'u-jen and T'u-ssu) greatly resemble each other. 

February 15. — To-day I had to go through the ordeal of a 
Chinese dinner given me by some merchants and traders. It 
lasted three hours but the time was not absolutely lost ; I got an 
indigestion and a few details concerning the trade of these parts. 

The musk trade here is increasing, Cantonese and Ssu-ch'uanese 
traders now come here to buy it, paying for good musk four times 
its weight in silver {ssu huan, as they say). The best test of its 
purity is an examination of the color. The Tibetans adulterate it 
by mixing tsamba and blood with it. The best time to buy it is 
from the seventh to the ninth moon (latter part of August to 
middle of November).* 

A trail leads from Hsi-ning to Kan-chou viA the Kokonor steppe 
(tsao-ti) in ten days ; it is frequently followed by traders. The 
Lo-lo town, of which 1 heard at Lan-chou from the China 
Inland Mission people, is, these traders told me to-day, 70 // 
from Hsiang-t'ang and is very small, there being hardly a hundred 
families in it. The inhabitants are said to be T'u-jen. 

February 16. — 1 have to-day finished buying ponies, securing 
six more strong ones of Tibetan stock, for which 1 paid an average 
price of twenty dollars. 1 have now got to purchase pack-mules 
and to complete my stock of provisions, and all this I will do as 
soon as 1 receive letters and the money 1 am expecting daily from 
Lan-chou. In the meanwhile 1 have decided to go on a little trip 
to the Salar country and to see Kuei-te and the adjacent Tibetan 
tribes of Rongwa. This will occupy about a fortnight, and on 
my return here the money will surely have arrived. 

* Mongols call musk owo ; Tibetans call it latsi. The best musk they say is 
"white musk" tsahan owo in Mongol, in Tibetan latst karpo. I do not know 
whether white refers to the color of the musk itself or to that of the hair on the 
skin covering the musk pouch. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 73 



PART II. 

Salar pa-kun. Kuei-te. Koko-nor. Ts'aidam. 



February 17. — I left this morning with three men and a pack- 
horse carrying my instruments, which 1 have packed in a padded 
box divided into compartments. In this I can put my sextant, 
artificial horizon, bull's eye lantern, boiling point apparatus and 
thermometers. The box serves me moreover for a table. Well 
wrapped in a sheet of felt made double over the corners, it can 
stand a good deal of very rough handling. My camera, bedding, 
a pot and a kettle complete the load. 

The road on leaving Lusar led nearly east-southeast over the 
loess-covered foothills of the Nan-shan. The loess even on the 
higher foothills, seems to have been washed down there, as 
rolled stones are everywhere found in it. In many places we 
saw holes dug down through the loess to auriferous gravel beds, 
and in the valley bottoms the gold bearing gravel is also worked. 
1 noticed a little white quartz m the loess and also in the gravel 
in the beds of most of the streams. 

We passed through a number of little villages of T'u-jen, several 
of probably a hundred families each. A considerable number of the 
houses are cave-dwellings, or partly of that order, with a front in 
the ordinary adobe-brick style built against the mouth of the cave. 
In western Kan-su these T'u-jen alone use cave-dwellings {yao 
t'ung). Such dwellings are found among all these people, and 
also, I have heard said, among the Tibetan tribes living west of 
Sung-pan T'ing. The question suggests itself whether these 
tribes did not teach the Chinese to make such dwellings, and 
furthermore whether these people, these T'u-jen, are not of the 
same stock as the now extinct Man-tzii cave makers of western 
Ssu-ch'uan. The only cave makers 1 know of in northwestern 



74 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

China in the olden days were the Tobas who were not of Chinese, 
but probably of Tibetan, (or T'u-jen) stock. The question is an 
interesting one, but it will require much more investigation before 
we can pronounce upon it. 

The T'u-jen women have adopted the Chinese fashion of binding 
the feet, but only to the extent of deforming them in width, not 
in length. This is the more fortunate for them as they lead hard 
lives, doing all the household and most of the field work. They 
are an ugly lot, short, thick set and very broad-faced, not to be 
compared physically with the Fan-tzu of this same region. 

We reached Sha-erh-wan (a strangely Turkish or Persian name, 
by the way) at 3 p. m. The village has in it several hundred 
families, the people tell me, and all are Mohammedans. 

At the inn where we stopped we were shortly followed by 
a party of Baron Sunit Mongols on a trip to Labrang gomba. 
They were in charge of some Salars who had hired to them mules 
for the trip (seven days) for 1.8 taels a head. 

In the evening 1 held a reception in my room, and the conversa- 
tion turned mostly on Islam. I learnt that the late Mohammedan 
rebellion broke out at Bayon-rong, where we will arrive the day 
after to-morrow, and that the people were incited to it by their 
priests or Ahons. Fortunately for the government dissensions soon 
broke out among the Mohammedans who came to blows over 
the question of smoking tobacco, one Ahon from Ho-chou con- 
tending that it was permitted them, the others denying this lax 
interpretation of the words of the Prophet. At Tankar the dissen- 
sion became so violent that the Hsieh-t'ai* conceived a plan of 
ridding the town of the whole lot. He had the males of both 
factions invited to meet him in the mosque, and as soon as they 
had assembled they were called out one by one under some futile 
pretext and their heads cut off, and so thirty-five hundred trouble- 
some Huei-huei were got rid of in a day, and Tankar, with a 
remaining population of a few hundred, knew peace once more. 

Since the suppression of the rebellion the Ahons have not been 
idle. Some have come from Mecca, some from Medina, some 
from Turkestan, and they have by their preaching incited the Kan- 
su Mohammedans to rebellion by urging them to follow customs 
contrary to the recognized usages and habits of China. Thus, 

* The Colonel in command of that frontier post. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 75 

they tried to induce the young men to let their beards grow, parents 
not to compress their female children's feet, and even encouraged 
them not to wear queues. In Hsi-ning when the Chen-t'ai* heard 
that some Mohammedans under forty were wearing beards, he had 
them called to his Ya-men and gave them their choice, prison or 
shaving off their beards, and off went the half dozen long hairs 
which probably adorned their manly faces. 

As to not compressing girls' feet, the Ahons have been a little 
more successful ; some of the native priests have in the case of 
their daughters let nature follow its course, but nine-tenths of the 
Huei-huei are as fond of seeing small feeted women as other 
Chinese are. 

Until about ten years ago no Mohammedan was allowed to 
enter the city of Hsi-ning (none, of course, could then as now 
reside there) without having an official seal stamped on his wrist at 
the city gate, and for the first few years after the rebellion the 
stamp was put on the face, near the corner of the mouth. 

It began snowing about 4 p. m. (the first heavy snow I have 
seen since December 14th last), and when 1 went to bed (8.30) 
the snow was still falling fast. 

February 18. — The snow fell during the night to a depth of 
between two and three inches. When we left this morning the 
sun was shining brightly and the glare was terrible. Fortunately 
we had all provided ourselves with horse-hair eyeshades. The 
snow made the narrow trail running along the very steep 
mountain side extremely slippery. This trail is usually only 
followed in winter when free from snow ; in summer it is 
impassable. It led first over loess-covered hills, then over disinte- 
grated red sandstone and finally over the porphyritic masses of the 
main range (Nan shan) by two passes, the first one called Niu-hsin 
yahu or "ox-heart pass," from a huge mass of bare rock beside 
it which may possibly have some likeness to an ox's heart. The 
main pass is the Ch'ing-t'u yahu or "black clay pass," a most 
appropriate name as the soil on the eastern slope of the pass is 
of a coal black color. 

From the Niu-hsin yahu we looked back towards Lusar, and all 
the valleys, ravines and anfractuosities we had crossed coming 

* Brigadier General. His correct title is Tsung-ping, Chen-t'ai is his colloquial 
designation. 



76 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

here were invisible ; the whole country seemed a gently sloping 
line of hills running north and south. The valleys and ravines 
we had painfully climbed up or slid down into, seemed but as 
wrinkles on the broad expanse of reddish earth. It was a beautiful 
example of loess formation, the subaerial and the marine deposits 
side by side. The loess is being continually redistributed in China 
by the action of water and the subaerial deposits do not cover, 
I fancy, a fifth of the loess-covered country of northern China. 
In eastern China (plain of eastern Chih-li and Shan-tung), I 
imagine that most of the loess is not a subaerial deposit, while 
in Shan-hsi the greater part of it is. 

On the south side of the range we reached, after a short but 
very steep descent, the village of Ts'a-pa, a place of several 
hundred families with a walled camp, a mosque, a lieutenant 
(Ch'ien-tsung) and a small garrison. Half the population is 
Mohammedan, hence the necessity for the garrison. 

February ig. — In the hills around Ts'a-pa are numerous T'u-jen 
and T'u-fan (Rongwa)* villages, the latter people, of mixed 
Tibetan descent, have retained some of their ancestral customs, 
but in their mode of living, they are purely Chinese. 

Ts'a-pa is a Salar Wai-kun f administered from Bayan-rong 
T'ing, and is of some importance as being on the route followed 
by salt smugglers on their way to and from Han-chung in Shen- 
hsi. These salt traders buy at Lusar, salt brought there by the 
Panaka or Mongols, who pay no import duties {likin or shut) 
to the Chinese authorities, and who can consequently undersell 
the government monopolists. The Chinese traders take this salt 
by this mountain route to Han-chung and thus evade all internal 
revenue taxes, as there are no likin stations on this road. 

On leaving Ts'a-pa our road led east by south up a well culti- 
vated valley and then over a low col into the broad (for these 
parts) Bayan-rong valley, down which flows a small stream fed 
from springs in the Nan Shan. The southern slope of this range 

*The terms T'u-jen and T'u-ssu apply to non-Chinese peoples of mixed Mongol, 
Tibetan, Turki and Chinese descent, while T'u-fan, Fan-tzu, Hsi-fan apply only to 
tribes of Tibetan blood, occasionally with a slight admixture of Chinese. 

t Besides the Eight Kun into which the Salar district is divided, there are five outer 
( Wai) Kun inhabited by a few Salar and a mixed population of Chinese and T'u-ssu. 
See p. 77. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 77 

shows, in the little valleys at its base, loess mixed with disinte- 
grated red sandstone and gravel of gneiss and dolerite (?) ; a little 
higher up appear beds of red sandstone, above this and falling 
over it, like beds of drifted sand, is the true loess, and finally rising 
through the latter the black, jagged peaks of the main range. About 
six miles before reaching Bayan-rong we passed the ruins of quite 
a considerable village destroyed three months ago by a loess 
hill-side falling down on it. Such events are of frequent occurrence 
in a loess country. 

Bayan-rong is a small village with a walled enclosure of the 
dimensions prescribed for a sub-prefecture or T'ing,* on a bluff 
above the Bayan-rong ho. The western suburbs contain all the 
inns and most of the shops, and the space within the walls is 
half empty. All the shops must be very badly supplied, for we 
could buy nothing in them that we wanted, neither bread, 
millet, coal-bricks {met chuan), nor meat. 

The name of this place is apparently a hybrid one (such names 
are innumerable in this country), Bayan is Mongol for "rich" 
and rang Tibetan for "arable valley. " The crops hereabout must 
be abundant, if one may judge from the number of small grist 
mills one sees along the river, and so the name given this valley 
is justified. 

The Hsieh-t'ai (colonel) who governs this sub-prefecture has 
five Wai-kun or "outside " Kun under him. They are Ts'a-pa, 
Nang-ssij-to, Hei-ch'eng, Kan-tu and Kargan. The word Kun (of 
questionable origin) designates a commune containing, theoreti- 
cally, a thousand families, but some of them (as Ka-tzu kun) have 
a much larger number of habitations. The term Wai-wu Kun 
or "five outside Kun " is used to distinguish them from the "eight 
Kun" inhabited by the Salars. These Wai-wu Kun are not 
exclusively inhabited by Salars, but have many T'u-jen, Chinese, 
T'u-fan, etc., living in them. Each Wai-Kun has, theoretically, 
fifteen villages in it. 

February 20. — The road on leaving Bayan-rong led in a south- 
east direction for about five miles, till by an easy ascent we reached 
the top of the La-cha shan (a Chinese transcription of the Tibetan 
word Ra-jo "fork"). From there we looked down on an 
endless maze of rounded hilltops of loess, and higher and more 

*The dimensions of all Chinese cities and towns are fixed by regulations. 



78 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

anguler ones of red sandstone. Our road led along the crest 
of the mountains for awhile, then by a precipitous zigzag down 
the side of sheer precipices hundreds of feet in depth, to the base 
of the mountain at the hamlet of La-mo shan-ken (another hybrid 
name, la-mo or ma and shan ken both meaning ' ' foot of the pass, " 
the first being the Tibetan, the latter Ihe Chinese expression). 
This village has only some twenty houses in it ; most of the 
inhabitants are Kargan Fan-tzu and Mohammedans. I found the 
inn where we had stopped for lunch so clean and quiet, and the 
cooking so good that, though we had only traveled eighteen miles, 
I determined to stop here for the night. 

The Bayan-rong rivulet flows by here, and empties into the 
Yellow River some eleven miles to the south, near the Wai-Kun 
of Kan-tu. We will follow this brook to-morrow. 

All the people here as well as at Ts'a-pa and Bayan-rong thought 
I was here to buy wool. They heard a year or so ago that 
foreigners at T'ien-tsin Wei and Shanghai were wild to get their 
wool, and so they think 1 have come here for the sole purpose of 
securing this year's clip. To say one is a wool-buyer is now a 
sure way of securing a friendly reception anywhere in this region. 
When the flaneurs about the inn in the evening saw me taking 
observations with my sextant (" looking at the stars," kuan hsing, 
they call it), they were persuaded it was to see how the wool 
market would be by the time I got the supply 1 was now buying 
down to Tien-tsin. 

It is about 45 // (fifteen miles) from here to Hsun-hua T'ing on 
the Yellow River. The Tibetans (here and elsewhere around the 
Kokonor) call this place Ya-dza k'uar, and the Yellow River is in- 
variably called by them Ch'u-k'a " The river." When the Tibetans 
living north of the Yellow River speak of it they say Ma {c'hu) harka 
or hari "the Ma ch'u there;" when those living south of the river 
refer to it, they say Ma {ch'u) tsurka or "the Ma ch'u here." 

February 21. — After about six miles over a stony road down 
the narrow valley — which must be converted into a broad torrent 
in the rainy season, by numerous little villages, nearly each one of 
which possesses a large mosque, we came out in the Yellow River 
valley, about a mile or two to the east of Kan-tu.* Turning 

*R. B. Shaw, On the Hill Canton ofSalar, injourn. Roy. As. Soc, n. ser. 
X, p. 308, gives Khantus and Mahtus as the titles of the two native Musulman chiefs 
who rule Salar under the Hsi-ning Amban. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 79 

eastward, we crossed the river on the ice a few miles down (just 
opposite the large Salar village of Ka-tzij kun) and followed it 
down for about four miles till we came to I-ma-mu chuang 
or the " village of the Imam,"* belonging to the Chang-chia kun. 
The village is divided into two portions, the " big" {to) and the 
" little " {hsiao, here pronounced ka) 1-ma-mu chuang. I stopped 
in the latter one. Here, after some difficulty, we found accom- 
modations in the house of one of the muleteers we had met at 
Sha-erh wan, and who had advised us to come to his home where 
he assured us we would be kindly received by his mother. It was 
fortunate we were able to get lodgings here, for as there are no 
inns in these Salar villages, if we had been refused admittance at 
this first village, it is doubtful if we would have been admitted 
in the next, as I fear we looked like rather suspicious characters. 

On either side of the Yellow River valley and at the base of the 
mountains which border it, there are hereabout a number of 
cliffs of horizontally stratified loess, gravel and disintegrated red 
sandstone, some three hundred to four hundred feet thick; these 
probably marked the former banks of the river. The river, about 
two hundred feet wide, now flows at a considerably lower level 
between rather high steep banks composed of red sand, on 
top of which is about twelve feet of sandstone and granitic gravel, 
and finally a bed of loess stretching over to the foothills or the 
cliffs above mentioned. 

The Salar men are of short, light build with regular features and 
oval faces, frequently with not a trace of the Chinese about them, 
and were it not for the queues they all wear, one would never 
dream of associating them with that people. The women, though 
they have a distinctly foreign look about them, have more of the 
Chinese in their features, especially the eyes which have drawn 
lids like the Chinese. Their head-dress is peculiar; it resembles 
somewhat the tiara so often seen in Assyrian bas-reliefs; the Salar 
wear it black, and, in that following the Chinese fashion, of white 
when in mourning; women and girls wear it alike. It is probably 
first put on when puberty is reached. The Salar women do not 
compress their feet. The jacket and trousers they wear are of blue 

*The Imams among the western Kan-su moslems receive as their perquisite, when 
any animal is butchered, the saddle, or the brisket. When after Ramazan everyone 
kills some animal to celebrate the event by a feast, some killing an ox, others a camel 
or a sheep, the hides belong to the Imam. 



8o JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

cotton and wadded, and are of the ordinary Chinese pattern, but 
the sleeves of the jackets are red or black. The men's dress is 
purely Chinese, the hat, perhaps excepted, which is rather of the 
pointed Kokonor Tibetan pattern but with a wider rim, faced with 
lamb's skin. The Ahons* wear a white turban and most of them 
have clean shaven heads, but when abroad they put on a false 
queue, so as not to get in trouble with the Chinese authorities. 
All of them go about with a rosary of ninety-nine beads in their 
hands, and attend the mosque three times a day where they sit 
on antelope skm rugs or else on woven rugs brought from Ilchi 
(Ho-tien). 

These Salar bury their dead with their heads to the north (as do 
all Chinese Mohammedans), the body is washed and wrapped in a 
sheet, but no coffin is used. The graves they cover with black 
and white pebbles arranged in patterns, and a stone is placed at 
the foot of the mound which is about two feet high. 

Several Ahons passed part of the evening with me and were 
very communicative. They told me they had no written traditions 
concerning their people, that it had come down to them that the 
first Salar who came to China, arrived in this valley in the third year 
of Hung-wu of the Ming (A. D. 1370). They came from Samar- 
kand, driven thence by internal discords, and were only two in 
number, leading an ox laden with all their worldly goods. They 
settled where the large village of Ka-tzu kun now stands. They 
were soon followed by others, and the villages became more and 
more numerous, so that now there are more than- a hundred 
Salar villages (divided into eight Kun, as previously stated) in 
which live between eight thousand and nine thousand families, f 

* The word Ahon is the Turkish Akhund, in common use throughout Turkestan. 

t"They {i. e., the Salaris) have a tradition that their ancestors came from Rum or 
Turkey. The story is as follows. Their spiritual guide or religious teacher, some 
seven hundred years ago, sent them forth on a pilgrimage, giving them a sample of 
earth with instructions to wander until they should reach some country whose soil 
should weigh the same, measure for measure, as the sample which they bore with 
them. From land to land they roamed, weighing the earth from place to place, till 
they came, by way of Tibet, to Sdl&rmis (Lower Salar). Here the earth was found 
to come nearer in weight to their sample than it had been anywhere else. Still it 
differed somewhat. They were preparing to march further when it was discovered 
that some of their camels, laden with religious books, had strayed. In search of them 
they penetrated into the hill country which lay at the side of their road. Here their 
task received its accomplishment. They weighed the soil and found it exactly 




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JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 8l 

All the men are taught to read and write Arabic (and some say 
the Turkish forms of these letters are also occasionally used) which 
they use in writing their own language, which is Turkish with a 
slight admixture of Chinese, Tibetan and Mongol — and possibly 
t'u hua. I obtained here a considerable vocabulary; I have, of 
course, transcribed the words phonetically — and where the sounds 
approximate Chinese, I have followed Sir Thomas Wade's system 
of transcription.* They have no written books save the Koran, 
at least so I have been told wherever I have inquired, at Lusar, 
Sha-erh-wan and elsewhere. 

February 22. — The head Ahon of the Salar is at present Han- 
Pao (it is pronounced Hambo, but I presume it represents Han- 
Pao) Ahon, he is a Hsi-ning man, and has a residence in the Ta 
I-ma-mu chuang. All men among the Chinese Mohammedans, 
Salar as well as others, have a Chinese name of the usual type, and 
also a Mohammedan one ; thus the son of the woman of this 
house is called Osman but for the world he is Ma Ch'eng-hsi.f 

The eight KunJ constituting the Salar pa-kun are Ka-tzu, Chang- 
balanced an equal measure of that which had been given them by their spiritual 
teacher. Here, therefore, they rested from their travel, and finding the hills inhabited 
they formed a settlement, to which they gave the name of Sdldr-gis, or Upper 
Salar, though to what language the affix belongs I do not know." R. B. Shaw, op. 
^^•t 305- 1 have a vague recollection that this tradition is not original with the 
Salars, and 1 think that I have heard of it among the Mongols. 

* See this Salar vocabulary in the appendix. 

t Col. Yule in speaking of the Mohammedans in Burmah says " Every indigenous 
Mussulman has two names. * * * As a son of Islam, he is probably Abdul Kureem; 
but as a native of Burma, and for all practical purposes he is Moung-yo or Shwepo." 
Narr. of the Mission to the Court of Ava in 1855, P- 152. 

^:Shaw, op. cit., 309, says that the Salars number " about forty thousand, and 
they live in villages consisting of scattered farmhouses, each on its own land. Groups 
of four or five villages each are administered by local chiefs called ' Imdk,' who 
again are subordinate to the two governors above mentioned." He further adds that 
" the Salars know themselves as Muntin, or ' the Faithful,' an Arabic word." Salar 
is, however, found as the name of one of the great Turkoman tribes now under 
Russian rule and residing around old Sarakhs, and numbering about five thousand 
families. The three nations of the Salars are named Yalawach, Githara, and 
Karawan. They have an evil reputation even among Turkomans, and are said to be 
generally hated. Lieut. A. C. Yate, Travels with the Afghan Boundary Com- 
mission, 301. M. P. M. Lessar calls them Salyrs, estimates them at five thousand 
seven hundred kebitkas (in 1882), and says they are the weakest of the Turkoman 
tribes. Proc. Roy. Geog. Soc, V, ii. See also W. W. Rockhill, The Land of 
the Lamas, 39 et seq. 



82 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

chia, Nemen, Ch'ing-shui, Munta, Tsuchi, Antasu and Ch'a-chia. 
Ka-tzu kun is the oldest and largest; it is said to have over thirteen 
hundred families living in it. 

We left Ka I-ma-mu chuang by the same road we had come by. 
While getting up the steep river bank my instruments came very 
near being ruined by the pack saddle turning and the horse carry- 
ing it thrown into a deep rift in the loess ; fortunately he fell on his 
back and as the whole load was, in his struggles, shifted around 
to his belly, nothing was materially damaged, but we had a hard 
time getting the load and the pony out of the hole. 

It was necessary in passing at Kan-tu to ask the officer com- 
manding the post (a Ch'ien-tsung) to supply a guide to take us 
Over the mountains and find us a resting place in whatever Kargan 
village we might have to put up in. This he at once did and we 
pushed on without any loss of time. By an easy ascent we 
reached the top of a short valley, the Radzu-p'o, near which is a 
large Kargan hamlet, one of the thirty-eight inhabited by this tribe 
of Tibetans, and then, following the crest of the hills we finally 
descended to the village of Rdo lung ("Stony Valley") and got 
good accommodations in the house of the chief, who has, by the 
way, the Chinese rank of Po-chang or " Head of Hundred." 

The Kargan have for the most part been converted to Islamism 
by the Salar, though a small portion of the tribe has remained 
Buddhist. 

The Kargan women have adopted, in a measure, the Salar 
dress with a little more color about it, They wear a long gown 
of dark blue, broad trousers and their hair is done up in a knot at 
the back of the head, with a crown of red cloth bound around it 
and showing the hair through the middle, and a big silver needle 
is stuck diagonally through the hair on the crown of the head. 
The men wear the pointed Tibetan cap, short woollen jackets with 
red collars, and a kind of Tibetan boot with red, blue and white 
cotton tops. 

Their language is a mixture of Tibetan and Chinese. Thus 
they say ta lu r6, "This is the highroad;" chi-gi ri, " How many 
are there?" etc., etc. 

The men among the Kargan and other Fan-tzQ tribes of this 
region occupy themselves making or repelling attacks on neigh- 
boring villages, keeping watch over their homes and property, 
and so have been obliged — unquestionably to their great regret, 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 83 

to abandon all the work, both at home and in the fields, to the 
women. In doing so they have also copied the example of their 
religious teachers, the Salars. 

It is difficult to get any idea of the number of these Moham- 
medan Tibetans, for Chinese Mohammedans include them among 
the Huei-huei, and only call Fan-tzu those among them who 
have not come into the fold of Islam. 

The Kargan have but a very few sheep. They are tillers of the 
soil (rongwa), and raise wheat, barley, peas and a few vegetables. 
Their houses are of the half Tibetan half Chinese style usual in 
this country, and they (the Mohammedan part of the tribe) are 
certainly more advanced in civilization than most of their com- 
patriots of the same race who have adhered to the old faith. 

We got some excellent bread from the Po-ch'ang. Bread- 
making is a blessing the Kargan owe to the Mohammedans, for 
Tibetans are not bread-eaters, or rather bread-makers, as the 
miserable cake they eat is not worthy of the name. 

The Kargan and all Rongwa eat tsamba, but usually dry instead 
of making it into dough. It is served heaped up in a bowl with 
some little brass spoons stuck in it. The proper way to eat it is 
to take a spoonful and throw it into the mouth without letting the 
spoon touch the lips, and afterwards to take a draught of tea to 
wash the dry flour down. It is doubtless a cleaner way of eating 
tsamba than the one usually followed, but I must say I prefer the 
dirtier method, it is more palatable. 

February 23. — Last night was the coldest we have had since 
leaving Lusar, the thermometer this morning at seven o'clock 
marked t6r2 F. After passing over the hills to the west of the 
village we re-entered the Yellow River Valley; for a while our 
way led along the crest of some hills from whence I could 
see that at some comparatively recent geological period the 
loess must have filled the valley, raising it some five or six 
hundred feet above its present level. Diluvian rains (such as 
still occur in summer) perforated the loess, created subterranean 
streams into which the superincumbent loess finally dropped 
and was then carried to lower levels; the adjacent loess at 
the same time subsiding without losing its characteristic strati- 
fication and covering the lower rock formations, moulding 
itself on them. These new loess beds were in turn perforated in 



84 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

the same manner, and so on till the present level was reached. 
This process is continually going on ; I have remarked it at every 
stage of its progress. The presence of erratic blocks of gneiss and 
granite at twelve or fifteen hundred feet above the river bed are 
puzzling, if loess is a subaerial deposit, and such blocks are of 
frequent occurrence in this part of the Yellow River Valley. 

We passed through a number of Hsi-fan (Buddhist Kargan) 
villages. The men of two of these were posted on the hills 
around their houses and in every coigne of vantage, armed with 
long matchlocks, swords and spears. They were at war with 
each other over a question of pasturage; a man or two of one or 
the other party had been killed each day for the past week. 
To-day the party whose score was lowest was expected to attack 
the other to square the reckoning. 

Just before crossing the Yellow River to reach Fei-tzu-ch'uan,* 
where we proposed spending the night, we passed through the 
ruins of what must have been a prefectural city {Hsien). The 
walls, all that now remains of this place, which is called K'ang 
Ch'eng, are divided in their greatest length at about a third from 
the southern side by a transversal wall. This Ch'eng occupies a 
commanding position of great natural strength, the river bluff 
in front, a steep gorge to the west. It is said to have been built 
in the T'ang period, sometime in the seventh or eighth century 
probably. 

We crossed the river in front of Fei-tzu ch'uan on the ice. The 
stream is here about fifty yards wide and has a swift current. 
This point marks approximately the boundary between the Bayan- 
rong and the Kuei-te sub-prefectures {T'ing). A direct trail leads 
from Fei-tzii ch'uan over the mountains viA Ts'a-pa to Hsi-ning in 
two days. In coming this way from Ts'a-pa over this route one 
must follow the Ts'a-pa stream down to its mouth, instead of going 
eastward up the valley we followed on leaving that place. 

In the house where we have put up lives a most intelligent 
Ahon, he has been to Mecca by way of Russia and the Suez 
Canal, he told me, but he did not describe his route clearly 
enough for me to identify many places along it. He said most 
pilgrims from these parts go to Mecca by way of Shanghai or 

* Fei-tzu-ch'uan is the Kan-su pronunciation of Shui-ti ch'uan in Pekinese, mean- 
ing " water and earth stream " or " valley." 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 85 

Canton, and the route through Tibet and India does not appear to 
be ever taken by them. On returning to their country, these 
Chinese Hadji wear green, black or white turbans. 

He told me that in the forty-sixth year of Ch'ien-lung (A. D. 
1781) a Salar Ahon called Ma Ming-ching of the village of Su-a- 
shih, fomented a rebellion which was quickly quelled by the 
Chinese troops. Ma is said to have disappeared, but this, if 1 
remember rightly, does not agree with the account of his end as 
contained in Wei Yuan's Sheng wu-chi* 

The Chinese patois spoken here is nearly unintelligible to us. 
It contains such expressions as kinder, "this one," kunder," that 
one," she It ka la, " come in," etc., etc. 

February 24.. — About two miles west of Fei-tzu ch'uan we 
passed through Kao-chia chuang, a good sized village, where are 
stationed a lieutenant and fifty soldiers. This village is the last 
Chinese one we will see until we reach Kuei-te, all the numerous 
hamlets we will pass through are T'u-fan or Rongwa ones, and for 
six miles beyond Kao-chia chuang the valley is thickly studded with 
them, f The largest village we saw to-day was that of Li chia. The 
males of this place were in arms and stationed on every hillock 
round about. They had killed yesterday two men of a neighbor- 
ing village, with which they have a long-standing feud, and were 
expecting to be attacked to-day by the dead men's clansmen. 

After passing this village we entered the Li chia gorges {ksia^, 
about a mile and a half long, formed by a ridge of schist and 
coarse red granite, which here cuts the valley from north to south. 
The trail is at this point very bad and extremely narrow, in some 
places barely wide enough to admit of a loaded horse pushing 
along it; with that it is several hundred feet above the river which 
tumbles along over huge boulders at the base of the rocks; when 
snow is on the ground it must be a very disagreeable path to travel 
over. 

A little beyond the gorge we turned to the south, up a lateral 
valley, its mouth marked by coarse red sandstone bluffs and 
boulders of weird shapes resembling those of the Garden of the 

* Cf. Land of the Lamas, 40, and Sheng wu shi, VII, p. 35 et seq. 

■f Kao-chia chuang means "the village of the Kao clan," Li chia chuang, "the 
village of the Li clan." Tibetans, with the exception of these tribes, have no 
family or clan names. 



86 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

Gods at Manitou (Colorado). This valley is thickly wooded with 
shrubs in the lower part, and with pines, spruce and birch trees 
in the upper portions.* I was surprised to find many of the 
shrubs and birch trees budding; though it is true that these little 
valleys, all trending north and south, are admirably protected from 
the prevailing westerly winds. We followed it up for several miles 
and then, passing by a low col into an adjacent one to the west, 
reached the little Rongwa village of Ssu-ke (or Se-ke). 

We experienced some difficulty in gaining admittance to a house 
as the inmates feared 1 was one of the Hsi-ning T'ung-shih.f and 
that they would consequently be squeezed and have to supply me 
with ula. Finally we got into one, by offering to pay my board 
bill in advance, and in a few minutes 1 was on the best of terms 
with the woman who owned it. The people here are all Bonbo 
and there are several lamas of that sect living in adjacent houses. J 
In one end of the house (it is of logs and is not divided off into 
rooms ; one end is a stable, the other a dwelling) was a big Tibetan 
stove that heats, by means of flues, a Chinese sleeping k'ang 
placed behind it. I noticed a little altar in a corner with a wooden 
bowl on it filled with grain, wool and yak hair, first fruit offerings 
probably, and beside it lay a damaru \ and a couple of grimy 
volumes of Bonbo sacred literature. One of these 1 examined; 
it was a funeral service and was in the usual Bonbo jargon, three- 
fourths Buddhistic in its nomenclature and phraseology. § The 
altar and books belonged to a lama who came in later on to have 
a talk. He asked for some rice to offer on the altar, in exchange 
for which he gave me some butter and ma-hua-erh, wheat cakes 
made in long strips plaited together, and cooked crisp in hemp 
oil; a favorite dish all over China, Mongolia and Tibet. 

Over the stove hung a small prayer-wheel which turned in the 
heated air as it ascended toward the big smoke hole in the roof. 

* On the flora of this section of country, see Prjevalsky, Reise am oberen Lauf 
des Gelben Flusses, 216 at seq. 

t Interpreter attached to the Ya-men of the Hsi-ning Amban. See Land of the 
Lamas, 52 et passim. 

X Prjevalsky, op. sup. cit., 198, makes mention of these "Shamans," and of their 
powers as medicine men. 

I Small hand drum used by both Buddhist and Bonbo lamas. 

§ Its title was Zab-ch'os dji k'rod gngos-pa rang-grol-las sngon tur gro-vai 
ch'os spyod bag-ch'ags rang grol. The colophan read Rdo-rje kro-po lod-kyis 
tnai sgrib spung-du par-du bsgrubs. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 87 

There were also on the bank of the brook which tumbled down 
the hill beside the hamlet, wheels (or rather barrels) turning by 
water; and similar ones are to be seen in or near all these Rongwa 
villages. They occupy little log hutches, and turn by a horizon- 
tal overshot water-wheel, the axis of the wheel and the prayer 
barrel being the same. In front of each house is an incense burner 
where spines of juniper (jhuka) are burnt morning and evening in 
honor of the tutelary and household gods. 

These Rongwa show considerable ingenuity in carrying water to 
their little fields along the hillsides; they use troughs dug out of 
long logs or poles supported where necessary on high props, to 
carry the water on to the fields and also from one side of the 
valley to the other.* 

To finish up the evening we had singing, and I awarded prizes 
to the best singers, or rather to those who sang the longest. The 
singing was very poor, the best performer was one of my men ; 
he improvised his songs as he went along, but none of them had 
anything in the world to commed them, not the smallest poetic 
idea or even originality, but every one was delighted with the 
performance. 

I should not omit mentioning that a few miles after leaving Fei- 
tzii ch'uan we passed in front of a large lamasery perched on the 
summit of a very steep hill, some eight hundred feet high, tower- 
ing above the left bank of the Yellow River. It was the Sachung 
(or Shachung) gomba of the orthodox Gelupa sect and has some 
fifteen hundred lamas. It ranks third among the lamaseries of this 
sect in Amdo, the first being Kumbum and the second Labrang.f 
It has a small gilt-tiled roof temple {chin wa ssu), but though its 

*R. B. Shaw, op. cit., p. 311, speaks on the authority of some Salars whom he 
met at Yarkand, of the following tribes living near the Salar, " the Daza, Si-fan or 
Ch'uan Rung, Khun-mo, Kopa and Turun." The first are the Mongols, Ta-tzu or 
Meng-ku, Ta-tzu being the usual name given that people by the Chinese. Of the 
Si-fan 1 need say nothing here, having discussed the term in other works. The 
term Chuan Rung is either an opprobrious one given them by the Chinese and mean- 
ing, as Shaw states, " Dog Rongwa, " or else it is a hybrid term, Ch'uanm Chinese and 
Rong in Tibetan, both meaning a fertile valley fit for agriculture. The Khun-mo are 
in all likelihood the K'amba, the Kopa are the central Tibetan people called in Amdo 
Gopa, and the Turun are the aboriginal tribes called by the Chinese T'u-jen. 

f Labrang (written in Tibetan bla-brang) means " the residence of an ecclesiasti- 
cal dignitary," the French term " palais episcopal" corresponds exactly to it. The 
real name of this famous lamasery is, 1 believe, Trashi-chyil (Bkra-shis k'yil). 



88 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 



possession is a source of pride to the inmates of the Gomba, 
it is not to be spoken of in the same breath with the great 
prototype of such edifices at Kumbum. 

Some 30 or 40 li west of this lamasery, and on the north side 
of the river, is a Bonbo lamasery with some two hundred inmates; 
it has a printing establishment. The most famous Bonbo lamasery 
in this border-land is, I have been told, a day's ride south of Sung- 
pan T'ing in northwest Ssti-ch'uan. It is called Jarang gomba and 
has some two hundred akas* in it. 

The Kuei-te Rongwa carry on a considerable business with 
Lusar, Kuei-te and Hsi-ning in birch wood ladles, yokes, wheel 
tires, pestles, etc. They themselves use birch bark to make little 
buckets and ladles, sewing it with woollen thread or else with 
strips of bark. These utensils are very roughly made. The 
birch tree is called hua shu in Chinese, and in the Tibetan of these 
parts, to-hua.\ The pine tree they call sumba (Chinese sung), 
and the poplar maha (in Chinese liuyang). 

February 26. — I got some good photographs of the villagers 
this morning. I find the best way to get them to stand for their 
photographs is to tell them that the Kodak is a toy, a kind of tele- 
scope, in which one sees the object in the finder instead of having 
to hold the apparatus to the eye. 1 have only to ask one of them 
to come and see for himself, and telling the person whom I want 
to photograph to stand still so that his friend may see him, while 
the first looks in the finder 1 push the button. This simple method 
never fails. 

One of the inhabitants showed me how he hollowed out mortars 
from birch logs. He placed a short section (about six inches in 
diameter) of the trunk between his feet, and with a bit of hoop 
iron sharpened on one edge and fixed in the end of a handle about 
two feet long, he, little by little, scooped the wood out of the 

* The term aka is used in Tibetan as a general term for all lamas. This latter 
term is only used to designate the ordained monks or gelong. Prjevalsky says that 
the " Tangutans " salute each other by saying "Aka dimo." This is not quite 
correct; the words used are aku dtmo, aku is the Kokonor Tibetan equivalent of 
the Central Tibetan Ku-zu (sku gzugs) meaning " body," " is your person well," 
— ^just as the Chinese say " shen shang hao." 

fin the Bat'ang country birch bark utensils are also in common use. See plate 
XXIll. At Lit'ang the birch tree is called drapo, but Jaeschke gives ta-pa {stag-pa), 
in which we probably have the correct form of to-hua. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 89 

center till he had hollowed out a mortar. The ladles, yokes, etc., 
are made with adzes and axes of Chinese manufacture. 

From Ssu-ke the trail (it is in reality the highroad between Hsun- 
hua T'ing and Kuei-te) led over a col into a deep gorge, and then 
through birch woods to the top of the Ts'a-ma shan from where 
we could see Kuei-te, some fifteen miles away. The descent from 
this pass to the valley was about four and a half miles long, 
extremely rugged and precipitous, and 1 should say that in wet 
weather or when snow covers the ground it would be im- 
passable. 

In the valley around Kuei-te the river debris is at least a hundred 
feet deep, and consists of angular stones brought down from the 
adjacent mountains, and rolled pebbles. The valley is, about the 
town, between two and three miles wide, and, wherever possible, 
under cultivation, irrigation being, of course, used. Numerous 
Fan-tzu hamlets of eight or ten houses with a fewknarled poplars 
and fruit trees growing around them, are passed before one reaches 
the little town itself The fields are now being irrigated, and the 
road is turned into an irrigation ditch. 

Kuei-te* I found smaller than Bayan-rong; inside the wall is the 
Ya-men and the garrison's quarters, in the faubourg to the east and 
south of the ch'eng are a couple of hundred families of Ta-chiao 
Chinese and one family of Mohammedans (La chia) of about forty 
members, which is a Hsieh-chia family (or brokers for Tibetans 
who resort to this place). Mohammedans have not been allowed 
to live here since the rebellion, when they killed the official com- 
manding here and had to flee. 

We found lodgings in a fine inn in the suburbs, but experienced 
great difficulty in getting any food, there was no bread to be 
bought, as the people here only eat man-Vou or "steamed bread," 
no rice, no millet, tsamba or even mien. We have fortunately been 
faring well all along the road wherever we have stopped, for none 
of my men can cook; but here no one will cook for us and so we 



* Prjevalsky, op. sup. cit., 215, reckons the population of Kuei-te at about seven 
thousand souls, one half Chinese the other Kara Tangutans of the Dunzsu {jsic) 
tribe. The women, he adds, were much more numerous than the men. This was 
in 1880. The present population is, all the adjacent villages included, certainly 
less than this. As to his Dunzsu 1 am unable to explain this term, though it would 
seem to be a Chinese one. It is, 1 think, misleading to call Kuei-te an oasis as 
Prjevalsky does. 



90 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

had to go to bed feeling rather grumpy, and after having supped on 
tea and bits of biscuit found in the bottom of my saddle-bags. 

February 27. — The principal trade of Kuei-te is in lamb skins; a 
little musk is also brought here, and wool is becoming an impor- 
tant staple of trade, but the Tibetans have suddenly got such 
wild ideas of the great price foreigners are willing to pay for it, 
that they are holding it back and refusing to sell any for three 
or four times the price they would gladly have accepted three 
years ago. 

Pears, peaches, apples, jujubes, watermelons,* are grown here, 
as is also a little cotton, but of a poor quality. Wheat, millet, 
hemp, broad beans and peas are the principal crops, and good 
potatoes sell for six or seven cash a pound. Cabbages, onions 
and a few other vegetables are also plentiful, at least I hear all 
this, but I regret to say that with the exception of a few potatoes 
and a couple of hard pears I have had no corroborative evidence 
of the truth of my informant's statements. Every thing else is 
very dear, more than the short distance from here to the place of 
production and purchase (Hsi-ning) would seem to justify. 

A little dried rhubarb root goes from here to Hsi-ning and 
thence eastward. There are several thousand pounds of it ready 
for shipment in the inn in which we are stopping. Travel to 
Lan-chou and all points east of here is usually done by way of 
Lusar and Hsi-ning, as the trail down the Huang ho valley is too 
bad. 

A hundred steps from my door in a little cage tied to the end 
of a pole, is the head of a T'u-fan of this place, who three years 
ago tried to stir up a rebellion. His bleached and grimacing skull 
tells of the fate which overtook him and his plans of ambition and 
reform. 

Kuei-te T'ing is officially designated as a Fan ckun min fu, "a 
military sub-prefecture for keeping the savages in order." There 
are twenty-four lamaseries in the sub-prefecture, with several 
thousand lamas and ever so many incarnate saints {huo Fo). The 
Chinese spoken here is of the same description as that 1 noted at 
Fei-tzu ch'uan, though it differs considerably from it — wonderfully 
so, considering that the two places are hardly thirty miles apart. 

* Cf. Prjevalsky, op. sup. cit., 215 et seq. He says that not only watermelons but 
melons grow here, also apricots and a small variety of cherry. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 91 

Thus, they say here kushli, "that;" kuerh, "this;" ku-ak-shli, 
"who is this?" ma-la, "early morning," etc., etc. 

West of Kuei-te on the Yellow River, distant a two days' ride, is 
Gomi Wahon — called on our maps Balekun Gomi and inhabited 
by tent-living Tibetans (Hsi-fan). There is a trail leading directly 
from Kuei-te to Tankar, vid. Sharakuto and passing by Ka (or 
"little") Gomi or Gomi t'ang five miles north of the Yellow 
River.* 

Two Bonbo lamas came to-day and sat in the mn-yard for a 
while, and I got a couple of shots at them with my kodak. They 
are very numerous around here and are very popular with the 
agricultural Tibetans, but not so much so with the pastoral 
tribes, who nearly all belong to the Gelupa sect of the orthodox 
Buddhist Church. 

Very little snow or rain falls, I am told, at Kuei-te, but at 
present, though the soil is clear of snow (in fact the buds on the 
trees are beginning to swell), it is thick on the mountain sides all 
around. It is a fearfully windy place and the people all insisted, 
when I asked the direction of the prevailing winds, that it prevailed 
from every quarter. 

In the afternoon to-day while on a walk through the town, I met 
a big Tibetan chief on the street, and asked him to come and take 
tea with me at the inn. He was a wizzened up old fellow of 
about fifty-five, with a very bright and cunning eye. His name 
is Lu-bum ku.f and he is the great chief of the Panaka south 
of the Yellow River, and a friend of my old acquaintance 
Nyam-ts'o Pur-dung, of whom he reminded me strongly in his 
manners. He offered to take me through his country and to 
make my stay there agreeable, and I was sorry I had to decline his 
oflFer, as I have always found these Panaka chiefs reliable when 
once they had given their word. 

In the evening — to wind up a well employed day, I got together 
in my lodgings, all the muleteers in the inn, gave them a feed and 
lots to drink and got two Tibetan women from the hills to sing 
and dance for us. The singing was of the usual miserable style, 
and the dancing, or posturing and shuffling about, as poor as 

* Ka gomi is Prjevalsky's Cha gomi. He says that Kuei-te is 69 Kilometers from 
Balekun gomi. See Prjevalsky, op. sup. cit., pp. 214, 215. 

t Meaning, probably, " Body often thousand Nagas." 



92 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

the singing. The women got very drunk and I had to turn 
them out after awhile. In their song, in which first one woman 
sang a verse (which she improvised), and then the other, they 
spoke of mountains, living Buddhas, horses, saddles, temples, 
a hotchpot of everything they hold beautiful, with feeble attempts 
at descriptions of each. The dancing consisted chiefly in swing- 
ing the arms and body slowly about, one dancer walking around 
the other, a poor attempt at a darkey shufifle. None but the 
Kuei-te Tibetans have this dance, which they have borrowed from 
the Chinese of this town. 

February 28. — We left this morning for home {i. e. Lusar), after 
being delayed some time getting an order {piao) for the ferry boat to 
take us across the Yellow River.* This boat is supposed to take 
every one across free of charge and whenever called upon, but the 
boatmen squeeze travelers terribly and delay taking them across 
until well paid for so doing. The piao got us taken across at 
once, and I was pleased to be able to carry a lot of poor pilgrims 
and travelers at the same time over with me. 

We followed down the left bank of the river, through willow 
brush {sha-liu), sand and gravel, until nearly opposite the Ts'a-ma 
shan, which we had crossed on the twenty-sixth, and then turning 
up a valley leading to the La-chih yahu or La-je la in the Nan- 
shan, ascended as far as the village of Kajang (Szechenyi's Kaschan) 
where we stopped for the night. 

The road all the way from the Yellow River to Kajang was in 
a loess-covered valley, showing a good deal of clay and red con- 
glomerate. The bottom of the valley was filled in places, and 
to a depth of several hundred feet, with angular bits of stone, 
granite, gneiss, etc., brought down probably from the summits of 
the main range to the north by the summer rains, after being 
detached by the action of the cold. 

We passed quite a number of Fan-tzii villages near which I 
noticed obos,\ in the tops of which were stuck amidst the brush- 

* Prjevalsky, op. sup. cit., 215, makes out the Huang ho at Kuei-te to be 108 
meters (354 feet) broad. He gives in the same passage as the altitude of the town 
above sea level 7,183 feet. Elsewhere he makes it out to be 7,500 feet. My obser- 
vations place the town at 7,634 feet above the sea. 

t Obos or stone piles erected on the top of passes or near temples or sacred struc- 
tures. They are also known in Tibetan as lab-ts'e. Obo is the Mongol name for 
hem. It is probably the Tibetan word do, meaning " a pile of stones." 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 93 

wood always put there, huge wooden arrows, some of them 
twenty feet long. On the brushwood were hanging thousands 
of little tufts of wool, taken probably by shepherds from their 
sheep as they passed the sacred spot,* and little pieces of cotton 
on which charms are printed (Jung-ta) hanging from long strings 
running from the obo to some adjacent tree or rock. I could not 
learn whether these obo with these peculiar arrows were built by 
Bonbo or Buddhists. Many prayer-wheels turned by water, and 
receptacles for tsa-tsa f {tsa-tsa k'ang-ba) made of logs and 
looking like diminutive cabins were also very numerous all the 
way up. 

Kajang (or Karang) comprises two villages or rather hamlets, 
Lower Kajang and Kajang Ch'ien-hu, a quarter of a mile higher 
up the valley. We stopped at the first named place, where live 
six or eight families of Chinese and where there are two inns. In 
the other village, which is on the west side of the valley, lives 
the native chief, who has the rank or title of Ch'ien-hu or 
"Thousand Families." 

On the west side of the valley facing Lower Kajang are extensive 
ruins of what I took to be an old Chinese fortified camp or Ch'eng, 
but of which I could learn nothing save the name, Ku Ch'eng 
(«. <f., "Old Town,") in Chinese and Ch'e-rgya fang, in 
Tibetan. 

February 2g. — Last night two men belonging to the La-chia 
Hsieh-chia of Kuei-te, who are accompanying us over to Lusar, 
told me that the profits they derived from their business at Kuei-te 
have been very much reduced on account of all the members of 
their clan having a share in them. They have to keep open house 
for Tibetans, supplying them during their sojourn at Kuei-te not 
only with lodgings for man and beast, but also with food. Then 
the Ya-men has to get its squeezes, and so do various other parties, 
and the Hsieh-chia have little left. And all this simply because 

*0n the habit of hanging bits of rag or a little wool on sacred monuments conier 
the custom as known in Mohammedan countries, and also Emil Schlagintweit, 
Buddhism in Tibet, p. 198. The custom is not unknown in Christian countries. 
See a note by W. Copeland Borlase on '* Rag Offerings and Primitive Pilgrimages in 
Ireland," Athencsum, April i, 1893, 415-416. 

f Little clay cones usually made in moulds and deposited either in these special 
hutches or else in ch'ortens. See Land of the Lamas, 257. 



94 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

being born in a family occupied at a certain trade, every member 
had rather attach himself to this same business than strike out for 
himself; this is Kan-su enterprise! 

My man Hai Chi-hsiang is a Hsieh-chia, but his father deemed it 
advisable to take up some other calling in life, so, he being a Bachelor 
of Arts {HsiU'ts'ai), joined a profession where brains are requisite, 
and opened an ' ' office for the protection of families " {pao-chia chii) 
alias a blackmailing agency. When he sees two men quarreling 
on the street, he threatens to hand them over to the authorities 
unless they pay him a certain amount. If a couple of young men 
are seen gambling or violating any of the innumerable municipal 
ordinances, half of which have "fallen long ago into inocuous 
desuetude," he bobs up and threatens his victims with exposure 
and gets a few cash out of them. Strange as it may seem such 
Pao-chia chii are common all over northern China. 

About four miles above Kajang the valley forks, and we see the 
La-je Pass (in Chinese La-chih yahu) about two miles to the north- 
east. At this point in the valley there is a fort commanded by a 
Ch'ien-tsung with some eighty to a hundred soldiers; it is 
called Ch'ien-hu Ch'eng, " The Camp of the Thousand Families," 
referring to the designation of this district, or rather to the title of 
its native chief Such forts are innumerable all over western 
Kan-su, but the presence of these soldiers is only so far of use 
that it prevents the population rebelling against the imperial 
authority, otherwise acts of violence may occur daily, hourly, in 
the immediate vicinity of these forts among the Salars, or Tibetans, 
and the troops will not interfere — it is only "a fight among Fan- 
tzii and unworthy of notice." 

The ascent of the La-chih shan was very steep but over a good 
trail; the descent was precipitous, and, as the gorge down which 
we had to go was filled with ice, on top of which was a little 
water, it was very bad going. At the mouth of this gorge we 
passed through the Nan-men ("South Gate ") in the Great Wall 
( Wan-li ch'eng), which passes at Lusar and goes thence by Ch'en- 
hai P'u to Ts'ama-lung at the eastern end of the defile leading to 
Tankar. We were now in the Nan-ch'uan valley, which has its 
mouth at Hsi-ning. Passing through the village of Djaya, I went 
up the valley a couple of miles to visit a place of great interest to 
me, Ch'u-k'or fang, where Hue passed several months waiting for 
the arrival on the Kokonor of the great caravan on its way to 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 95 

Lh'asa.* The name Ch'u-k'or tang ("plain of the prayer- 
wheel " ) belongs properly to a T'u-fan village near a little 
lamasery consisting of half a dozen white washed houses perched 
on some shelves of rock a hundred feet or so above the valley, 
and which is called Ch'ing fang meaning, probably, "Abode of 

Purity." 

1 was told that in 1890 the Grijimailo brothers staid eight or ten 
days here collecting birds and plants. They were not mentioned 
by name, but from the description given me I cannot doubt that 
they were the " Olosu " referred to. 

I arrived at Lusar at dusk and was pleased to learn that a Mr. 
Rijnhardt, of the China Inland Mission, had come from Hsi-ningto 
bring me the money 1 had asked for at Lan-chou. Not finding 
me at Lusar, he returned yesterday to Hsi-ning where I will 
have to go and see him. 

March i. — I found out this morning that my cook, Kao pa-erh, 
whom 1 had brought from Kuei-hua Ch'eng and had left here 
while 1 was away to look after my things, has been looking into 
them besides, had promenaded about bedecked in all my finery, 
been out shooting the vultures around Kumbum, much to the 
dismay of the lamas, for they are quasi sacred, being the last, 
though temporary, resting place of most deceased lamas. To one 
man he had lent one of my ponies, to another he had given some 
of my clothes, and to all he had said that we were such devoted 
friends that what was mine was his. 1 called him up, gave him 
a good rating and told him that I would abandon him here to get 
back to Kuei-hua as best he could, with neither money nor clothing, 
for 1 would not pay him any wages, and the clothes on his back 
were all mine, paid for with my money and only lent to him. I 
have no intention of carrying out this threat, it would be biting 
my nose to spite my face with a vengeance. I have at best 
to eat bad food made with poor materials, and he knows how to 
prepare very tasty messes, such as no one 1 could get could 



*i 



Hue, op. cit., II, 145 et seq. He calls it Tchogortan. His "grande montagne 
taillee a pic," in the flank of which are the dwellings of the lamas who live in this 
place, is only a cliff some 200 feet high. This little lamasery was destroyed in part 
during the late rebellion, but from Hue's description of it I doubt if it was any larger 
in his day or different from what it now is, though he seems to imply that there was 
a building in the bottom of the valley at the foot of the cliff, in which the hermits 
lived. 1 could And no trace of any such building. 



96 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

possibly make. I cannot punish myself to the extent of dismiss- 
ing him, but I will wait for all my men to come and beg me to 
keep him, which they will surely do, though to-day they all 
vow that dismissal is too light a punishment for him. 

During my recent trip we were four men with five horses, and 
got all our food at the inns where we stopped and also feed for 
our horses, yet the expenses for all have only been a tael of silver 
($1.15) a day. This was because 1 managed the whole thing 
myself, and no squeezing was possible. 

March 2. — I went to-day to Hsi-ning to get my money at the 
China Inland Mission house, where 1 found Messrs. Hale and 
Rijnhardt. The latter had kindly ridden all the way from Lan- 
chou here to bring me my money. 1 asked him to come and pay 
me a visit at Lusar, and we will ride up there together to-morrow. 

I put up at the inn where 1 have always stopped, and was so 
fortunate as to secure a copy of the "New description of the Hsi- 
ning Department" {Hsi-ning Fu hsin chih) for 18 taels.* It is 
very rare, as the blocks and nearly all existing copies were 
destroyed in the burning of the Ya-men during the Mohammedan 
rebellion. It was written by a Tao-t'ai called Yang in the Ch'ien- 
lung reign, and contains much valuable information on this frontier 
country, its inhabitants, monuments, ethnology, etc., besides 
valuable itineraries to Tibet, etc. 

The son of my former friend, Fu T'ung-shih, came to see me 
to-day, and 1 gave him some presents for transmission to his father 
who has not come back from K'amdo since we went there 
together in 1889, and also some for himself. I suppose the father 
has made a pretty good thing out of his three years of foreign 
service in a country where he can play the big man. 

March j. — I got back at dusk to Lusar accompanied by Rijnhardt 
who cut a funny figure riding with very long stirrups a diminutive 
pony of mine, and looking very foreign, notwithstanding his 
Chinese rig and surroundings. 

Yeh Hsien-sheng, who had accompanied me to Hsi-ning, did 
not come back with me, as he had difficulty in settling up our 

•This book, together with a number of other things, were sent by me to Lan- 
chou to be taken to Shanghai by Mr. Brown. The boat in which he descended the 
Yang-tzii kiang capsized, and this valuable work and a number of other things, 1 
am sorry to say, were completely ruined. 





6 

1. Bbabs kettle, used in Mongolia and 2. Coppeb pot (Koko nor). (U. S. N. M. 

Koko nor. (U. S N. M. 167221.) 131187.) 

3. Red leather and leopabd skin tsamba 4. Copper kettle (9bigats6). (U. S. N. M. 

BAG. (U. S. N. M. 131201.) 131188.) 

.5. Goatskin bellows. (XI. 8. N. M. 131043.) 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 97 

accounts with the inn-keeper Ma Shao-lin, who was short of 
money, and did not want to pay me back 50 taels I had lent him 
in February to help him settle his accounts at the New Year. 

I have put all my money matters into the hands of the Hsien- 
sheng who is the best and most reliable fellow 1 have met with in 
China, and for whom I have a very soft spot in my heart. 

March 4.. — Most of my time to-day has been spent in repack- 
ing my boxes, weighing them so as to apportion the loads, and 
fixing everything for the start. All the things 1 don't require, 
together with the things I have bought on the way, I am sending 
down to Shang-hai. 

Besides the camp outfit, bought at Kuei-hua Ch'eng, I have got 
here the following supplies which I have had packed in leather 
bags such as are in universal use in Tibet and Western Mongolia. 



191 Catties* of tsamba {fsao mien). 



160 




" flour. 


45 




" candles (five to a catty). 


42 




" ch'i-tzu (kind cf little biscuit). 


140 




" rice. 


50 




" vermicelli iktia-mien). 


80 




" fu ch'a, brick tea (for barter). 


20 




" " " " (for use of party). 


20 




" brown sugar. 


20 




" Hami raisins. 


5 




" rock candy {ping^ fang). 


5 




" candied jujubes {mi tsao). 


5 




" candied apples, apricots, etc. 


25 




" butter. 


4 




" tobacco, {tsa-payen). 


4 




" Chinese condiments, ginger, red pepper 
paste, kan fen (a kind of vermicelli), 
vinegar, onions, etc., etc., and a few 
other odds and ends. 


51 


)ecks chuoma {potentilla anserina). 


5 


i ( 


dry jujubes. 



*A catty {chin in Chinese) weighs about i^^lbs. 



98 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

Besides these I have six boxes containing goods for barter,* and 
for presents, my papers, change of foreign clothing, money, 
horse-shoes, shoeing outfit, etc., etc., weighing altogether three 
hundred and thirty-six catties or about four hundred and fifty 
pounds. 

The two tents, each with thirteen iron pegs and a hammer, 
weigh together sixty-six catties, and the kettle, ladles, tongues, 
grate, teapots and batterie de cuisine in general about twenty-five 
more. 

There are six riding saddles of Tibetan pattern, which I have 
found much less apt to rub horses' backs than the Chinese or 
Mongol kinds, seven pack saddles, also of Tibetan type, five pair 
iron chain-hobbles with padlocks, the same number of yak-hair 
hobbles, and a supply of thick, soft felt for repairing packs, plenty 
of hair rope and pack thread. 1 have also provided a suit of 
summer clothing and two pairs of boots for each man. 

Our armament consists of two forty-four calibre Winchester 
carbines, a ten bore Scott shotgun and a forty-four calibre Colt's 
revolver; 1 have also a Remington forty-four calibre rifle with one 
hundred cartridges to present to the Dzassak of Baron Ts'aidam, 
to whom 1 promised it in '89, and a small revolver for his steward 
Dowe, who guided me in '89 from the Ts'aidam to Jyakundo. 

1 have five hundred rounds of Winchester ammunition, twenty- 
five ten guage cartridges loaded with buck-shot and two hundred 
loaded with No. 4. 

Altogether I have reason to believe that my preparations are 
complete in every respect, save perhaps money, of which I have 
only about 700 taels. 1 have been careful to take two of every 
essential article, so that 1 will be able to split up my party and 
make rapid trips away from the main route without putting the 
men left behind to any inconvenience. 

March 5. — Yeh Hsien-sheng brought in to-day a fine mule 
which he bought for 25 taels at Hsi-ning. He left a little later in 

* A full list of these would take up too much space, but I can recommend to trav- 
elers going into Tibet the following articles: Satin ribbon 3 inches wide (red, blue, 
yellow and green are the colors preferred) ; flat mother-of-pearl buttons, large needles, 
thread, small Japanese lacquer rice bowls, gunpowder, razors (Chinese), copper wire, 
pocket looking-glasses, snuff, Chinese mouthpieces for pipes, thumb-rings, snuff 
bottles, hatchets, hsiang-pien tea, broadcloth (red and purple), jack-knives. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 99 

the day for Chen-hai P'u and Toba, where he hopes to be able to 
buy a few more mules at moderate prices. 

I have been shown a copy of Tsong-k'apa's Sung-bum* printed 
here, it is a cumbrous work in sixteen volumes printed on thin 
Chinese paper, the leaves of Tibetan size and shape, two feet long 
by four inches broad. It costs between 60 and 80 taels, so I can- 
not, to my regret, buy it. 

The organization of Kumbum (which may be taken as the pro- 
totype of all large Gelupa lamaseries) is as follows: — The elders 
{Rgan pa) of the lamasery appoint, for terms of three years, four 
officers who manage the temporal affairs of the convent and who 
are respectively called Ta Lao-yeh, Erh Lao-yeh, San Lao-yeh and 
Ssu Lao-yeh. The first looks after the finances, the second after 
all such things as come under the cognizance of the Hsi-ning 
Amban's Ya-men, the third Lao-yeh attends to the convent's trad- 
ing with the Mongols and Tibetans, and the fourth Lao-yeh is 
steward of the University or La-lang and regulates the fare to be 
supplied the members on the rolls of the different colleges, to one 
of which all lamas must belong. 

Besides these four officials there are magistrates or lama officers 
{Seng ktian), also chosen by the Rgan-pa for three years, and 
called Gekor, whose duty it is to see that the rules and regulations 
are observed by the akas, and who have, as assistants, the Ch'vi- 
lin-ba, called by the Chinese Hei ho-shang, or "Black lamas," 
who are primarily water-carriers, f as their name implies, but are 
chiefly known as the Gekor's executioners and assistants. 

The four colleges composing the university are each presided 
over by a lama with the title oi Ji-wa, and the name Lar rgyad, or 
" Eight-Lar," is applied to the establishment and directors collect- 
ively. The great college or Ike La-lang is managed by an Ike Ji- 
wa who is also Proctor of the University. The second is the 
medical school or Man-ba La-lang with a Man-ba Ji-wa at the 
head, the third is the Ch'ii-ba La-lang or theological school and is 
under the rule of a Ch'u-ba Ji-wa, and the fourth Ji-wa manages 

* This is the most famous work by the great reformer Tsong-k'apa, who lived in the 
14th century, and was a native of Kumbum. His Lam rim ch'en-po ranks next in 
importance to his Sung-bum. 

\ Carrying water to fill the big tea cauldrons from which the lamas employed in 
reading the sacred books are daily supplied. 



lOO JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

the Teng-kor La-lang or college of contemplation (or asceticism).* 
These positions, which are of profit as well as honor, are reserved 
for Chinese akas of the Hsi-ning circuit, such people being known 
zs\\\tLiVsu ("inner tribes"), while all Panaka and Mongols, 
called generically Wai tsu or "outside tribes," are excluded 
from them, and even the San-ch'uanese and other T'u-jen are 
comprised in this latter class. 

In the fourth moon of every year each college sends out its 
agents among the Panaka and Mongols to collect donations for the 
support of the institution. They assess each tent or home accord- 
ing to its means, and to one they present a piece of cotton cloth 
(Jao pu), which obliges the receiver to give as a return present a 
horse; to another family they present a pair of boots which is 
acknowledged by handing them an ox, and so on. Returning to 
Kumbum in the eighth moon, with the horses, cattle, sheep, butter, 
wool, etc., they have thus obtained, the live stock is sold at a good 
price to Chinese who, when known to the San Lao-yeh, are 
given easy terms for payment. 

All lamas whose names are on the rolls {fo') of the lamasery 
receive daily allowances of tea and a yearly allowance of meal, 
the tea is brought to them daily in the buildings where they 
prosecute their studies, and they on their side bring there with 
them their tsamba and butter. There are three thousand seven 
hundred lamas at Kumbum. 

*Conf. as to the organization of this famous lamasery. Hue, op. cit., 11, iiget seq. 
Sarat Chandra Das, speaking of the theological studies pursued by the lamas of 
Tashil'unpo, says: " For a period of three years from the date of entrance they are 
regarded as Rig-ch'ung ox monks of the primary stage, after which they are called 
Rig-ding, i. e., those of middle stage. Monks of five years' standing are called 
Rig-ch'en, i. e., monks of the higher stage. They are permitted to pass an exam- 
ination in the sacred books to obtain the rank of P' al-chenpa. The most intelligent 
among the P'al-chenpa go up for the degree of Kah-chan (called Rab-chainpa 
at Lh'asa), which is something like the degree of D. D. Those who fail in this 
examination go to the Buddhist college of Gyantse, where there are eighteen Ta- 
tshangs or classes, to graduate themselves as Tung-rampa or Bachelor of Divinity." 
Indian Pundits in the Land of Snow, 8. Speaking of the degrees conferred at 
Lli'asa, the same writer says: " The Ge-tshul (novice monk) goes up for the degrees 
of Tung-rampa, Kah-chan or Rab-champa, which may be likened to the B. D. 
and D. D. degrees of the European universities. * * * The successful candidate 
applies for the highest initiation into the Lamaic order of Ngag-pa (esoteric initia- 
tion) when he becomes eligible for the posts oi Khan-po (professor) and Head Lama 
of a monastery." Ibid. 5. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. lOi 

The various high dignitaries of the Gelupa sect, most of whom 
recognize Kumbum as their alma mater, keep up (at their own 
expense or at that of the tribe among whom they have taken up 
their abodes) an establishment here known as a K'arwa {ink.ar- 
wa)* where they reside perhaps a portion of the year, and where 
the people of their district find free board and lodgings. These 
K'arwa are recognizable by their red painted outside walls and by 
the front doors opening in the middle, all other buildings having 
white walls and small doors. There are eighty-three K'arwa at 
Kumbum, the oldest and first one in importance is the Tsong-k'a 
k'arwa, dating from the foundation of the lamasery, f The highest 
dignitary residing in any one of these Kumbum K'arwa is the 
A-chia Gegen (or Hutuketu),t then comes the Pe-chia Fo-yeh and 
some forty other " Living Buddhas," of high degree. 

The lamas who own houses may not receive rent of any kind 
from those who stop with them, the latter present them with a 
few presents (It wzi), and the host makes up for his liberality by 
the squeezes he is able to make on all the purchases of his guests. 

Among the customs peculiar to this great lamasery is the fol- 
lowing: — when a lama has committed a crime entailing his 
expulsion from the lamasery, an arrow is run through his ear,|| 
the paper wrapper of a brick of tea is put on his head, and he is 
driven across the bridge on the road to Hsi-ning, which marks the 
limit of the convent's property in that direction. Cases of murder 
are disposed of by the Amban at Hsi-ning. 

Kao-pa-erh, my cook, condemned recently to dismissal, is trying 
to ingratiate himself with me by giving me the best dishes he can 
prepare. By the same irresistible means he has won the men 
over to his cause, and they have hinted to me that I will find it 
most uncomfortable in camp without him. I will await a formal 

*The foot-note on p. 88 of my Land of the Lamas should be corrected so as to 
conform with the explanation of the term K^arwa given above. 

t Tsong-k'apa derived this name from Tsong-k'a, a village which possibly occupied 
the spot on which Kumbum now stands. At the Tsong-k'a K'arwa are kept the 
two big " black snake " whips used by the Hei ho shang. This K'arwa is the only 
one in the gomba allowed by law to have them. 

% The village of A-chia or A-chia chuang is only a few miles south of Kumbum. 

II A similar punishment is in vogue in China. The Shen Pao of Shanghai, of 
April 4, 1886, mentions certain criminals at Port Arthur who had arrows run through 
their ears. 



I02 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

appeal for mercy from the culprit and the other men, so that they 
may not fully realize my weakness. 

March 6. — Yeh Hsien-sheng brought back three more good 
mules bought at an average price of 27 taels. This is more than 
I had wanted to give for them, but it is money well invested, if 1 
only get them as far as the Ts'aidam, for even there they are worth 
twice this amount. I have told him to buy two more, and then 
my preparations will be complete. 

1 am waiting for a party of Chamri Fan-tzu to arrive here to hire 
yaks from them to carry my goods and guide me as far as the 
Muri-Wahon country towards the southwest corner of the Koko- 
nor. I heard yesterday that they would probably reach Lusar in 
a day or so. This tribe is the largest one among the Panakasum, 
and they make themselves everywhere respected — or feared, so 
to travel in their company will be an additional safeguard in tra- 
versing the Koko-nor steppes. 

March 7. — Last night as I was going to sleep all my men came 
in a body and, having kotowed,* besought me not to leave the 
cook behind, but to pardon him "just this once," and take him 
along. I said I would give the matter careful consideration, that 
my word was engaged to dismiss him, and that I could not lightly 
break it. 

This morning the cook came in, made his kotow, admitted that 
he had behaved very badly, but begged to be forgiven. I gave 
him a second edition of the sermon I had delivered to him when 
first found sporting in my clothes, and told him I would take him 
on probation, adding that should he behave badly again, no mat- 
ter where we might be, in the wildest part of the wilderness of 
north Tibet or among the savage Tibetans, 1 would abandon him 
to his fate, without money, food or pony, to shift for himself. 

* Among themselves Chinese Mohammedans do not kotow, but bow and say, 
"Salam aleikum," to which the reply is, " Aletkum salam." I may note here 
that among the Hsi-ning Mohammedans the husband and wife do not use in speak- 
ing to each other, their ming-tzfi or name, but simply the expletive hai! If they 
have a son, the mother will speak of her husband as the father of so-and-so, and the 
father will speak of his wife as so-and-so's mother. For example, if the boy is 
named Erh-li, the father speaking of his wife will call her Erh-li-ti ma-ma, and 
she will speak of him as Erh-li-ti Va-Va or tei-tei. Old people who have 
grandchildren speak of each other as ani, "the old woman," and aje "the old 
man." These latter expressions are Tibetan. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 103 

Shortly after this my dinner was served, and it was the best I have 
had since leaving Peking. 

To-day 1 gave each of the men 20 taels on account of wages 
(they get 5 taels a month), and leave of absence to go say good- 
bye to their families and settle their affairs. Rijnhardt left for Hsi- 
ning, so 1 have seen the last of foreigners for many a long month 
to come, but I am so accustomed now to being all the time with 
Asiatics that it is more of a strain to converse with Europeans 
than with them, more irksome to comply with the foreign cus- 
toms of the missionaries than with those of Chinese and Tibetans. 

March 8. — I went out walking to-day and got some fairly good 
photographs of Kumbum. The gold-tiled temple had its roof 
regilded last year and looks very gorgeous. While photograph- 
ing I was surprised to see a large wolf trotting along not five 
hundred yards from the lamasery. The lamas do not allow any 
animals (slrcep excepted) to be killed on their property, and so 
pheasants and wild pigeons wander about its precincts like 
barn-yard fowls. 

To-day was a market-day at the temple and 1 bought a few odds 
and ends for my ethnological collection, among other things some 
large agate beads such as the T'u-fan and Fan-tzu women wear 
on the cloth bands hanging down their backs and fastened to their 
hair. They come from the Tung-lu (Liao-tung, probably), and 
are called in the trade Han ma-nao (Chinese cornelian ?). Amber 
in rough pieces is also procurable here. The Fan-tzu call it su-ru, 
and when I objected that this was the Tibetan name for " coral," 
they said that the latter was hsu-ru. This may be true here, but 
su-ru is the usual name of coral in Tibet.* 

The weather at night has been so cloudy since I have been here 
that I have had to give up taking observations by stars east and 
west and confine myself to the sun, which is much more certain, 
as the days are nearly invariably clear, though often windy. 

March p. — I have invested in anotherfine mule which, in Tibet, 
will be worth four times the price I gave for it — if it lives to get 
there. All caravans going this way to Tibet take as many mules 
as they can with them, also horses; they consider it the best way 
to invest their money. 

* I know of no name for "amber " in Tibetan. Jaeschke and several other writers 
g\vespos shel, which means, literally, "perfumed crystal." 



I04 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

I heard this morning that some thirty or forty Na-chia Panaka 
(living near Muri-Wahon) have arrived here, and are now camped 
in the ravine above the village, with some two hundred yaks 
loaded with salt, hides, etc. I intend trying to hire some of their 
yaks to carry my luggage to their country, as the Chamri 1 was 
expecting have not turned up. 

I managed to get 105 rupees from a Tankar trader; I wanted 
some six or seven hundred, as sycee is of little use in Tibet, but 
they are very scarce this year, much more so than in '89. 





March 10. — Ssu-shih-wu, who had gone to Shang wu-chuang* 
to say good-bye to his wife and family got back to-day bringing 
the pack saddles and crupper-sticks {ck'iu- 
kun) I required. Shang-wu chuang makes a 
specialty of manufacturing these saddles, which 
are made of birch wood, also sheath knives and 
swords for the Tibetans and Mongols. The 
crupper-stick is universally used for mules 
throughout China and Tibet, and is also some- 
times used on pack horses and yaks; it is a 
great deal better than the ordinary crupper. 
Broad breast-bands of wool are always used, 
no matter what the pack animal may be. 
Between the two the saddle is kept immovable, 
and if the pads under the saddle are well aired 
and scraped, there is little danger of the animal's 
back ever being galled. Should this, however, 
occur, the universal practice in these parts is 
to put warm urine or else tea on the chaffed 
parts. The former will rapidly reduce any 
swelling. Throughout China and the adjacent 
countries mules receive much more care at the 
hands of their owners than horses, in fact the 
horse is looked upon as an inferior animal to 




i 



KNIFE OF PANAKA 

TIBETANS. 
(Shang-wu chuang.) 



the mule, and I think deservedly so. 

March 11. — The headman of the party of Na-chia Panaka I had 
been expecting, came to see me early this morning, but he could 
give me no assurance as to when he would be ready to go home, 

* A group of five hamlets about fifteen miles north of Chen-hai P'u. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 105 

"perhaps we will be ready in ten days, perhaps in a month, the 
blue sky above only knows;" so we could come to no agreement. 

Shortly after he left a Chamri Panaka from somewhere near 
Kuei-te came and offered to hire me yaks for two pieces of cotton 
(laopu) a head, this would be equivalent to 1.2 taels in silver, to go 
to Muri-Wahon, and I gave him two pieces to clinch the bargain. 
In the afternoon he came again and returned me the cotton, he 
could not go, news had just been brought him that his village had 
got into a fight with a neighboring one, and he had to hurry 
home to take his part in the scrimmage. 

Time being of value, and as I have set my heart on leaving here 
on the 14th, 1 sent two of my men to a village not far away called 
Chung-t'ai, to try and hire yaks from a party of Su-chia Panaka 
reported to be camped there. They came back towards dark and 
said that these Panaka being quite as uncertain as to their future 
movements as those camped here, they had hired donkeys from 
some of the villagers, for which 1 am to pay i tael a head as far as 
Muri-Wahon, which district they agree to reach within ten days. 
This pleases me well, donkeys carry the same loads as yaks (one 
hundred and sixty pounds) and travel faster and behave on the 
road in a much more dignified way. Yaks, even the tamest ones, 
are savage beasts, like their owners. 

March 12. — I took all the horses and mules to-day to Toba 
(Hsin-tseng P'u) to have them shod by a smith of local fame. I 
was entertained while there by the relatives of Yeh Hsien-sheng, 
who gave me a good dinner and took me to visit the famous mosque 
which occupies the center of the little town. It was built, I was 
told, by order of the Emperor K'ang-hsi in the sixth year of his 
reign (A. D. 1666), and he also had built the large mosque in the 
village of Chen-hai P'u* near by. It is faced all over with fine 
large tiles, with flowers and arabesque designs in various colors 
on them, and the roof is covered with turquoise blue tiles. All 
the tile work was made at Ning-hsia. Like all Chinese mosques, 
it has no minaret, but a little detached pavilion in its stead, with 
one story reached by a flight of a few steps. The interior of the 
mosque was, of course, empty, but a tablet with the Emperor's 
(K'ang-hsi) name or style on it occupied the center. The build- 

*Tchin-hai Pou of d'Anville's map. (Carte Genl* du Thibet, IV* Feuille.) 



io6 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 



ing has, in the last twenty odd years, become rather dilapidated, 
and only recently permission has been granted the Ahons to repair 
it. A handsome subscription book was shown me, and 1 con- 
tributed my mite towards the much needed work. 

The village of Ta-nei-k'ai, about two-thirds of a mile south of 
Toba on the road to Lusar, is built in the half cave, half house 
style peculiar to the T'u-jen of this region, but is inhabited by 
Chinese, or at least by people claiming to belong to that race, in 
which case it is the only village of this kind inhabited by them 
in this region. Toba, if my memory serves me right, was a place 
of some importance in the seventeenth century when the Jesuits 
make mention of Armenians residing there.* 

March ij. — A San-ch'uan T'u-jen came to see me and from 
him I got a short vocabulary of his language, which is, as I 
thought, about eight-tenths Mongol, the residue being Tibetan, 
Chinese and, to the best of my knowledge, a heretofore unknown 
lingo, probably the original language of the T'u-jen of this part of 
the Empire. t My informant said the T'u-jen were called in his 
language nutan-ni kun, 1 fancy that this half Mongol word is but a 
translation of the Chinese ^'tt-y<?« or "people of the soil." Curiously 
enough the word he used for " Tibetan " TSbe, is nearer our name 

* " Les Armeniens qui etoient a Topa paroissoient fort contents du Lama qui en 
est le maitre." Du Halde, op. cit., I, 41. He apparently quotes Pere Regis. On 
the map prepared by the Roy. Geog. Soc. to illustrate Mr. St. G. R. Littledale's 
journey, previously referred to, this place is erroneously called Dabachen. 

t Potanin says that on the left bank of the Yellow River, and also in the valley of 
the Ta-t'ung ho, live a people called Chiringols, who speak Mongol strongly mixed 
with Chinese and another element which must be their ancient language. These 
people say that the Ordos country is their original home. Potanin thinks they belong 
to the same race as the Daldy of Prjevalsky, and Mr. Deniker, from whom I quote 
the above, says that this conclusion appears highly probable, as the northwest section 
of the Ordos is at the present day called Daldi. He (Mr. Deniker) inclines to believe 
that the Chiringols and the Daldy are of Turkish stock. Deniker, Les populations 
iurques en Chine, in Bull. Soc. (f Anthropologie de Paris, j' SSrie, X, 206 et 
seq. Potanin's Chiringols are unquestionably the San-ch'uan T'u-jen, As to 
Prjevalsky's Daldy, 1 am unable to form an opinion; see, however, my Land of the 
Lamas, 44, note. Chiringol is certainly not a tribal name, but that of some 
stream {gol ) flowing through the country inhabited by this people, possibly the 
Mongol equivalent of the Chinese San-ch'uan or "Three streams." The people 
inhabiting this district are undoubtedly of mixed descent, certainly not pure Turks 
like their neighbors the Salar. The Daldi of the Ordos are the Talat Ordos Mongols. 
See p. 29. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 107 

for this people than any I have heard elsewhere. The Mongols, 
it will be remembered, say Tangut, so the Vu-hua word is not 
directly derived from that language. Of the unexplicable words 
in the vocabulary, I will only note htrtmiengo, " silver;" «ara, 
''sun;" sdra, " moon •" bulS, '' hoy \" akur, " g\x\;" rjigS, "ass;" 
znd MiorS, "cat." 

The San-ch'uan people are said to number several thousand 
families, their language is also spoken in the Cho-mu ch'uan, 
which lies to the east of Bayan-rong and is probably contiguous 
to San-ch'uan. The San-ch'uanese are divided into a number of 
gens taking their names from the families of their chieftains, thus 
there is the Li T'u-ssQ, Ch'i T'u-ssu, Cho T'u-ssu, etc. They 
are quite as devout Buddhists as the rest of the Mongol race, and 
count a living Buddha among them, the Pe-chia Fo-yeh, who 
resides, however, at Kumbum, though he has a K'arwa in the 
San-ch'uan. 

This evening all the loads were made up, bills were settled and 
everything got ready for the start to-morrow. The donkeys will 
only come over here to-morrow from Chung-t'ai and it is probable 
that we will only get a few miles on our way; but starting is 
always a most difficult thing in these parts, and the nearly univer- 
sal practice is to camp a few miles out of town and there collect 
the caravan. 

March 14.. — We actually left Lusar this morning, though we 
straggled out by twos and threes, and the donkeys only reached 
camp at A-chia chuang, some four and a half miles southwest of 
Lusar, at midnight. 

This T'u-fan village near which we have camped is famous as the 
birth place of one of the most saintly of the Kumbum Buddhas, 
the A-chia Fo-yeh. It is one of the ten villages which give this 
broad valley the name of Shih ta t'an, and it is recognizable by 
two high poplars which grow near it. 

It began snowing heavily towards 4 p. m., and by 11 p. m., 
when it cleared, about four inches of snow had fallen. I put up 
my tent, but the men preferred the open, as all these frontiersmen 
do when the weather is not too execrable. 

The dogs went and lay down far from the camp and kept up a 
fierce barking all night, as is their custom. We hobbled the 



lo8 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

horses and mules two by two with padlocked chain hobbles; this 
is the best precaution 1 know of in these countries of horse thieves 
as it is impossible to drive away animals so locked together, 
then we sat around the fire until near dawn, talking over our 
adventures of three years ago and all agreed that there was no life 
so agreeable, so free from care as that we were now entering on. 
How long will these sentiments last ? 

March 15. — Before we left this morning a Hsun-i, sent by the 
Ch'ien-tsung of Ch'ing-shih pao, the warden of the Sharakuto 
road and of the Hung-mao pan-tao pass which we have to cross 
to-day, came and asked to see my passport. As a sign that he 
was detailed by the Ch'ien-tsung (lieutenant) he bore that officer's 
official hat, but notwithstanding these credentials 1 refused to show 
my papers to him, but sent the Ch'ien-tsung my card and told him 
to go to Hsi-ning, if he chose, and there find out who 1 was. The 
idea was to get a squeeze out of me, as it was believed I was a foreign 
trader going to the Panaka country to buy wool. This Ch'ien- 
tsung is, I learnt, in the habit of exacting squeezes from all Tibet- 
ans coming this way with salt or other produce to sell at Lusar, 
though they are by right exempted from the payment of any duty 
to the Chinese. 

The ascent of the Hung-mao pan-tao pass, called in Tibetan 
Ta-mo ri, and which leads into a valley at the mouth of which is 
the little frontier post of Sharakuto, proved most trying, for neither 
we nor our horses or mules were yet broken into climbing, and 
the mountain side of shaley rocks, with here and there porphyry 
up which the trail led, was exceedingly steep. 

From the summit we could see to the east the La-chih shan, 
over which we had passed when coming from Kuei-te, and before 
us to the south, some two miles away, was the dark massif oi\\\t 
Yeh-niu shan, or "wild ox mountain," stretching westward to 
Sharakuto, and which is also visible from Kuei-te, from which 
place it bears about north-northwest. 

We camped on the south side of the pass, at the first spot 
where we found water and grass, at a place called Feng fei (shui) 
ling, about fourteen miles east of Sharakuto. 

March 16. — The trail led down to Sharakuto through a stony, 
uninhabited valley in which flows a little stream. We passed on 





1. Pack saddle for yaks (Lhasa). (U. S. N. M. 107234.) 
■2. Pack saddle (Koko nor). (U. S. N. M. 1GT2:W.) 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 109 

the way a large drove of salt-laden yaks coming from the Dabesu 
gobi, and belonging to a party of Chamri Panaka, who passed us 
by without a word of greeting or recognition. 

A mile or two before coming in sight of Sharakuto we saw at 
the foot of the mountains, on the right side of the valley, a few 
tents, some of Mongol type, others of Tibetan, but all inhab- 
ited by Kung Dzassak and Tolmok Mongols. Some thirty or forty 
(others say seventy or eighty) families out of the two hundred 
composing this latter tribe are Mohammedans and live at Fei hsia, 
40 li from Shang-wu chuang, which is north of Toba about 
eighteen miles. The chief of the tribe has the rank of Kung 
("Duke"), given him by the Emperor of China, who bestows 
on him annually \2 yuan pao of silver (600 taels) and six pieces 
of satin, the usual allowance made a Mongol Kung. He lives at 
Morjia, near Gomba soba, in the Hsi-ning ho valley.* These 
Mohammedans had, eight or nine years ago, a protracted contro- 
versy with the Mongol Wangs of the Koko-nor, who wanted to 
forbid them professing Islam, lest they might rebel. The Moham- 
medans finally made a compromise by which they were allowed 
to follow their own faith, but agreed to keep some lamas among 
them to read Buddhist prayers. 

I camped about one-and-one-half miles south of Sharakutof 
where good grass and fuel were abundant, and sent my head man 
to inform the Shou-pei or Captain of my arrival . Shortly after, an 
interpreter from his ya-men, a Pa-tsung (Sergeant), and an escort 
of five soldiers, all armed with spears and matchlocks, and 
carrying a tent, made their appearance, and said that they were 
detailed to escort me to the Wayen nor and inform the chief of 
the Chamri tribe of Panaka living near there that due courtesy 
must be shown me. The interpreter, who is a Hsieh-chia, said 
that the Shou-pei had received advice of my coming from the 
authorities at Hsi-ning some time ago. He had also been advised 
that six or seven foreign women had been authorized to visit the 
Koko-nor to " preach religion " {ch'uan chiao) which, by the way, 
my informant thought a most unwomanly thing to do, as it 
certainly is in the eyes of all Asiatics. He asked me if I had seen 

* 1 camped at Gomba soba (or sarba) in 1889. See Land of the Lamas, iiS. 

t This place is called Shene hoto by the Panaka. The Chinese name of it is Ha- 
la hu-to ying. The name is Mongol and means " Yellow town " (Shara hotun). 



no JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

these women, knew anything about them, and if such an 
extraordinary thing would be allowed in my country, and I was fain 
to admit that such proceedings were not of rare occurrence, but 
that these ani were harmless if treated kindly, but if harshly, 
then the troubles of that country were about to begin, to last 
until it had been " civilized " and the original owners had become 
unrecognizable for ever more or had been wiped off the face of 
the earth. 

From where we had camped we could see on a hillside about 
three miles north of the town the Tungor gomba, a lamasery of 
some celebrity, where live about five hundred akas. 

From Sharakuto a trail runs south to Gomi-t'ang, a day north- 
west of Kuei-te and about five miles north of the Yellow River. 
Another trail leads hence southwest to Gomi-wargan (or Wahon, 
on some maps called Balekun gomi ) which is two days west 
of Kuei-te. A road leads from Sharakuto to Tankar which 
is distant twenty odd miles; and finally a trail (though it is 
really the highroad to Tibet) leads along the south shore of the 
lake* to Dulan-kuo and thence to Baron Ts'aidam. 

March ly. — We were unable to start to-day on account of the 
sudden illness of old Miao san. He is fifty-six years of age and 
has been leading a rough-and-tumble life, so the climbing over 
the Hung-mao pan-tao has worn him out. I fancy also that he is 
not over anxious to go on this journey and wants an excuse to 
slip back home and pocket the twenty taels 1 gave him the other 
day and get all the good clothing, etc., I have supplied him with. 
He groaned and tossed about all day in great pain but when 
finally I said I would send him back to Hsi-ning as 1 could not 
wait his recovery and had no medicine to give him, and told 
the Hsien-sheng to ride over to Sharakuto and take him behind 
him on his pony and make arrangements for his getting home, 
he braced up very fast and was soon off. It will be one man 
less to feed, always an important consideration in the country we 
are about to visit. 

The T'ung-shih says that some years ago a foreign Hsieh-t'ai 
(Colonel) with twelve or thirteen soldiers and provided with 
Mongol tents came here by the Hung-mao pan-tao route. While 

* Prjevalsky has explored this route along the lake, and I believe that Potanin has 
also followed it. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET, in 

camping at Feng-shui ling he was trying to put a cartridge in his 
shot gun when the shell exploded and the load lodged in one of 
his men. When they had got beyond Sharakuto the man died 
and was buried beside the road. He added that he would point 
out the grave to me to-morrow. I repeat this story for what it is 
worth, but Asiatics are such wasteful liars (the exceptions only 
confirm the rule) that there may not be a word of truth in what 
he said.* The only Colonel 1 know of who has been here is 
Prjevalsky. 

March i8. — We got off in good time this morning, and about one 
and one-half miles from camp crossed thejih Yueh shan ("Sun 
and moon mountain ") which marks the boundary between China 
and the Koko-nor. This hill, called by the Tibetans Do-rnirta, 
is but a spur of the Yeh-niu shan, and of inconsiderable height and 
very easy ascent. It connects to the north with the range running 
along the south side of lake Koko-nor, and on its western flank 
is the basin of the little Tao-t'ang ho (Rhirmo yong or djong 
in Tibetan) the only river 1 know of which flows into the Koko-nor 
from the southeast.! 

Beyond the Jih yueh shanj stretches a rolling plateau well 
covered with grass but very badly watered, we saw on it but very 
few tents, though many may have been hidden in protected nooks 
where the fierce winds cannot reach them. 

* What Sir John Bowring says should be borne in mind by all travelers in Asia. 
" My experience in China, and many other parts of the East, predisposes me to 
receive with doubt and distrust any statement of a native, when even the smallest 
interest would be possibly secured by falsehood. Nay, I have often observed there 
is a fear of truth, as truth, lest its discovery should lead to consequences of which 
the inquirer never dreams, but which are present to the mind of the person under 
interrogation. Little moral disgrace attaches to insincerity and untruthfulness, their 
detection leads to a loss of reputation for sagacity and cunning, but goes no further. " 
Sir John Bowring, The Kingdom and People of Siam, 1, 105-106. My own 
experience is that Asiatics often lie for fear of displeasing, or so as not to commit 
themselves, or from suspicion of the motives of the interrogator, but rarely from 
maliciousness. 

f According to Prjevalsky it is the Ara gol which empties into some ponds along 
the shore of the lake at its southeast corner. 

X Timkowski, op. sup. cit., II, 275, calls this the Je choui chan, signifying " hot 
spring mountain." "La source chaude, coule vers le lac Koukou noor; une autre 
d'eau froide, au nord, donne naissance a la riviere de Si-ning." Most Chinese authors 
write the name as 1 have done, meaning "mountain of the sun and moon." See 
Jour. Roy. Asiat. Soc, n. s. XXlll, 97, where it is also (p. 105), however, called 
Jih-ya la shan. 



112 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

Some eight miles from Siiarakuto we passed an abandoned fort 
or Ying-pan, called by the Chinese Tsahan Ch'eng and by Tibetans 
Kar t'ang, both terms meaning "White fort;" then crossing the 
Tao-t'ang ho and a range of hills some four hundred feet high 
which divides the basin of this little stream from that of the 
Wayen nor, we entered the latter plain and camped in another 
abandoned Ying-pan which stands one-quarter of a mile north of 
the little lakelet of Wayen nor. 

At no very remote period (geologically speaking) this lake may 
have been of considerable size (four miles from east to west and 
possibly two to three from north to south), but now it is not over 
one-quarter of a mile in its greatest width and exceedingly shallow. 

In the eighteenth century this, and in fact all the country around 
the Koko-nor, belonged to the Mongols,* while the present Koko- 
nor Tibetans occupied the country to the southwest, extending 
through most of the mountainous region south of the Ts'aidam, 
including the valley of the Alang and Tosu-nor, which latter 
region was then occupied by the Arik or Arki Tibetans now living 
north of the Koko-nor. The name of this latter tribe was, by the 
way, in all likelihood the same as that of the lake now called Alang 
by the Mongols, who probably made the alteration so as to make 
a poor pun on the name of their much feared neighbors.! 

All the clans of Koko-nor Tibetans belonged to eight tribes 
with the cognomen Na (or Nag), so they became known by 
the hybrid term of Pa-na ka, or Pa-na-ka sum "the eight Na 
families " or " the three (divisions) of the eight Na families. " The 
latter designation appears to be of more recent date than the 
former and refers, 1 am told, to the three sections of country over 
which they are now spread, i. e., the tribes north of the Koko- 

* Khoshotes or Eleut Mongols, according to Timkowski's Chinese autiiorities of 
the Eighteenth century " Le pays qui entoure le Koukou noor (ou Khoukhou noor), 
est habile par des Oeloet, des Torgaut, des Khalkha et des Kho it * * * En 1509 
cette contree fut conquise par les Mongols. Au commencement de la dynastie mand- 
choue, actuellement regnante, Gouchi Khan des Oeloet, venant du nord-ouest, fit la 
conquete de ce pays, il envoya un ambassadeur a la cour de Peking, et fut con- 
firme dans sa dignite." Timkowski, op. sup. cit., II, 270-280. See also H. H. 
Howorth, op. sup. cit., 1, 497, et seq. 

t When the Hsi-nin^ Fu hsin chih was written (A. D. 1759), the Arik Fan-tzu 
lived along the Tieh-li nor (i.e., Tongri ts'o-nak, the Tibetan name of the Tosu nor). 
Sttjoum. Roy. Asiai. Soc, n. s. XXili, 98. For the various meanings of the words 
Alang or Alak, Areki or Arik, see Land of the Lamas, 158. 




-.,./.„*? 




Su-CHiA Panaka at Muri-Wahon. 



1 

1 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 113 

nor, those south of it, and those living south of the Yellow 
River or Ma * h'are Panaka. This name of Panaka or Panaka-sum 
they have now adopted as their ethnic appellation, and they speak 
of themselves, as "we Panakasum" (^Na-ts'ang Panakasum). 

The country these Tibetans first occupied was mountainous, of 
difficult access, and the Golok were too near neighbors for comfort. 
So they began moving northward taking possession of first one slip 
of Eleut Mongol land, then of another, till now they have driven 
the Ch'ing-hai Wang's Mongols to Dulan-kuo and the Muring 
Wang's to around Tankar and the immediate neighborhood of 
the Chinese. Thus they obtained not only finer pasture lands 
than they originally had, but an easy access to the Chinese markets 
and consequent higher prices for their goods, and whenever they 
have seen lands which have seemed to them desirable, they have 
taken possession of them, and held them against all comers. To 
these sources of profit they have added others derived from 
razzias on their Mongol neighbors, and even on Chinese travelers. 

The Chinese saw with unconcealed displeasure this migration, 
and probably they at first prevented it taking too great proportions 
and lent their aid to the Mongols in their efforts to keep the Tibetans 
to their mountains. But with the outbreak of the Mohammedan 
rebellion in Kan-su, in fact even earlier, probably as soon as the 
T'ai-ping rebellion broke out, all China's forces were employed 
elsewhere, and the Panaka were left to do and move about as they 
liked, and thus they have come to occupy the country they now 
control. The movement of these tribes northward is still going 
on, small bands or single families are constantly coming from 
south of the Yellow River to live in the pasture lands south of 
the Ts'o non-bo (Koko-nor). 

The Panakasum have never paid tribute to the Emperor, but 
within the last few years the Hsi-ning Amban, as a means of 
conciliating them has given yearly to each of the principal chiefs 
among them three piculs of barley. He has also conferred on all 
of the chiefs official buttons, but they care, very rightly, more for 
the barley. 

As far as I can learn the Panaka are divided into the following 
bands : — 

* The Yellow River is called Ma ch'u in Tibetan. Hsi-yu tung wen chih, XXil, 
says this word (written rma) means "yellow," but dictionaries do not thus explain 
this word. 



114 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 



i.° Bands living north of the Koko-nor. 



2: 
ho. 



Arik 


10,000 


Dabje 


4,000 


Konsa 


2,000 


Bumtok * 


2,000 


Honsang 


300 


Yasho santo 


300 


Remung-sherab 


200 


Ruser 


100 


Tatsa 


200 


Topa 


200 


Nardzaf 


200 


ving south of the Koko-nor, \ 


Chamri 


5,000 


Tub-chia 


1,000 


Wutushin 


500 


Narta 


100 


Rjyiikor 


100 


Riirin J 


250 


Chu-chia 


75 


Na-chia 


70 


Ku-chia 


50 


Su-chia 


50 


Shurtsang 


50 


Gonwa 


50 


Atchok 


100 


Mirka 


75 


Wangsht'ah'a 


100 


Kuri 




Gona 




Kuar-sotsang 




Shang-chia [[ 




Yangyu 




Tawo 





families 



families 



*They live near Dulan-kuo, in the iiilis to the east of that place, I believe, 
t The Topa and Nardza bands live in Korluk Ts'aidam. 

t Divided into Rarin shuoma or " lower Rarin," and Rarin gongma or "Upper 
Riirin." 
[[ Not to be confounded with Shang chia in southeast Ts'aidam. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 1 15 

There are probably a few more bands, but I have been unable 
to learn their names, nor have I been able to obtain more than 
rough guesses as to the number of families in each.* 

The Chamri, who form by far the largest band of the South 
Koko-nor Panaka, do not certainly exceed five thousand families, 
and most of the other bands, such as the Na-chia, Su-chia, are 
under a hundred. So it will appear that the Panaka living south 
of the lake are numerically inferior to those living north of it, 
even if, as in fact appears proper, we discount heavily the figures 
I have given above. 

I have left out of count the Ma h'are Panaka, those living south 
of the Yellow River, who, I have been told, are more numerous 
than those to the north of it. Old Lu-bum-ge, whom I met at 
Kuei-te was one of the most influential chiefs of these southern 
tribes. 

Supposing the above estimates correct, we have: 

N. Koko-nor Panaka 19,500 families 
S. Koko-nor Panaka 8,500 " 

Mahari Panaka 9,000 " 

or, estimating four persons to a family, about 158,000 souls. 

The estimate given above of the numerical strength of each 
band does not appear excessive, except for the four first bands 
of the North Koko-nor Panaka, in which case it would perhaps 
be wise to strike off ten per cent., and then I would be inclined 
to accept the result as roughly correct. 

The Wayen-nor Ying-pan, where we are stopping, was built 
three years ago (in 1888) when there was a great rush to the 
newly discovered gold fields of Gork, which lie about south of 
here four days travel. One has to cross the " Three days' desert," 
(Kurban tara in Mongol, Do fang, "Stony Plain" in Tibetan), 
then Ta hoba of the Chinese (Ch'u-rnang of the Panaka) is reached, 
and near here, in the mountains inhabited by the Su-chia Panaka, 
the gold diggings are found. First discovered in 1888, the 
Hsi-ning Amban leased them to a Chinese for one hundred and 
eighty ounces of gold (three thousand two hundred and forty 

* The names of the principal chiefs now ruling these tribes are Chamri Solo, 
Ch'ij-gyal Da-la-rgya, Na-chia Ta-ko, Konsa Lama Arabtan, Konsa Pei-ho, Remung 
Sherab, Ta-tsa Guru, Bumtru Seku, Mogalo, and others with like harmonious 
names. It must be noted that these names are frequently the same as that of 
the tribe to which the chief belongs. 



Ii6 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

ounces of silver) a year, which sum he had to collect as best he 
could from the people who came to work in the diggings. 

Villages of log houses soon sprang up, and in less than two 
years about three thousand ounces of gold had been taken out of 
the diggings. Then the rude appliances in use were no longer 
serviceable and the placers were abandoned. 

The T'ung-shih tells me that the Hsieh-t'ai of Tankar will 
proceed in two months time to Derge to there meet the Hsieh-t'ai 
(Colonel) from Ta-chien-lu, with whom he is to confer on the 
important question of whose "sphere of influence" Derge is to be 
placed in, will the Viceroy of Ssu-Ch'uan or the Hsi-ning Amban's 
delegates squeeze it. Ssu-Ch'uan, 1 fancy, will be given authority 
over it, but from what 1 know of Derge, it will not make very 
much out of it. 

March ip. — TheT'ung-shih and the escort left us at Wayen nor, 
but the headman of the Panaka living near by was informed by 
the former officer that I was not to be molested in any way, but 
to be allowed to proceed peacefully whichever way I chose. So 
much kun^ shuo (" empty talk "), for no one cares a cash if I am 
molested or not, on the contrary, every one would like to see me 
forced to give up the journey. 

About three miles west of the Ying-pan we came to a short but 
steep descent of about one hundred feet through gravel and loess 
lying in horizontal strata, each stratum from eight to twenty feet 
thick.* Then we crossed a succession of low hills, and ravines, 
and passed by the little walled Rongwa village of Tumba, where 
the agricultural Tibetans come yearly to sow and reap their crops 
of barley, going during the winter farther south to the Yellow 
River. A mile farther on at Ch'abche (one of the numerous little 
valleys we had to cross) we saw a number of black tents and 
many sheep and yaks. Leaving this behind us we entered another 
lacustrine plain, similar to that of the Wayen nor but stretching 
north and south and with a small stream flowing through it and 
emptying, 1 was told, into the Huang ho, or possibly into the Huy- 
huyung, a large river which has its source to the west of here.f 

*This whole country shows how active an agent erosion can be in altering 
the topography of an extensive region. Lakes and rivers which we know existed a 
century or less ago have been completely obliterated, chains of mountains have 
crumbled away and are now little more than hillocks. 

t In or near the bank of the Dabesu nor (Ts'aka nor). 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 117 

On this stream, a little to the north of our route and where it 
issues from the mountains, is the village of Kaba (or Gaba) talen 
where live some twenty to thirty families of Chinese Moham- 
medans, Hsi-fan and also, if report be true, a number of Chinese 
fugitives from justice, who have committed crimes in the Nei-ti 
(China proper) and have found refuge in this secluded spot. The 
place bears a bad reputation among Tibetans and Mongols. A 
little farming is done around the village and a small crop of barley 
is raised. 

We camped near the river nearly two miles from the village, 
with which we thought prudent not to hold any intercourse. The 
country so far belongs to the Chamri Panaka tribe, but to-morrow 
we will enter the country of the Shaner Panaka. 

March 20. — The trail led over the foot hills of the range which 
hides the Koko-nor from us and whose southern base we have 
been following since leaving Sharakuto. This range has no name 
that I can hear of, at one place it is called by my Chinese Erhte-shan 
at another Lao-hu shan, and so on. To the south the country 
stretches out for miles an undulating plateau, the little ridges 
traversing it having a general southwesterly direction. Some 
forty miles to the south 1 can distinguish a chain of mountains 
trending apparently southwest by west, but of no great height. 
They are probably on the farther side of the Yellow River. 

Black tents were quite numerous all along the route, and we 
passed a few whose denizens told us they had but recently come 
from near Labrang gomba, to the south of the Yellow River. This 
country is the Tibetan's land of promise, plenty of grass, water, 
wind, and pusillanimous Mongol neighbors, whom they can bully 
and rob. 

We camped in a stony valley called Erhte, down which flows a 
good sized stream, the Erhte ch'uk'a, and where there are a number 
of tents of Shaner Panaka, at one of which we bought a sheep 
for a brick of tea and some red handkerchiefs. Some Sharba* from 
Sung-pan were camped near us, but, as is their custom, they would 
have nothing to do with us fearing lest I were a T'ung-shih anxious 
to squeeze them. These enterprising traders are found in every 
nook and corner of the Koko-nor and have got all the trade with 

*The Sharba are Chinese traders from Sung-pan T'ing in Ssfl-ch'uan. See Land 
of the Lamas, 54 and 112. 



Ii8 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

the people, which should by rights have belonged to the Kan-su 
traders if they had only a little more push and energy. 

We made camp at about noon, just as the west wind began its 
daily violent performance, and to-day, as usual, it kept it up to 
sunset. I noticed very few yaks hereabout, all the cattle are half- 
breed yaks (^pien niu in Chinese) and domestic cattle (huang niu). 
I am told everywhere that the cattle plague, which has been 
raging now for over a year, has destroyed most of the cattle, and 
has been especially fatal to yaks. What would become of the 
Tibetans without yaks is difficult to imagine, dwellings, food and 
fuel, they owe all this and much more, to these useful, ugly beasts. 

March 21. — Some six or eight miles to the west of Erhte the 
trail took us higher up the foot hills, and we passed into another 
little basin, that of the Hato, which empties, I was assured, into 
the Kaba talen stream (but of this 1 have my doubts, and it would 
appear to me much more probable that it flows into the Gunga 
nor). The country is covered everywhere with grass, but it is of 
little use as pasture land, as water is miles away, except during a 
brief period of the year when the rain water collects in the hollows. 
The small herds we saw have all to be driven daily four or five 
miles to water. 

When about eight miles from Erhte ch'uk'a, I caught a glimpse 
of the Gunga nor or " Egg lake." It bore about south-southwest 
from us and was probably four miles away. It appeared to be a 
very small sheet of water, hardly deserving the name of lake. It 
receives a number of streams, the principal being the Huyuyung, 
which, as I have said, comes from the west. It may have an out- 
let into the Yellow River, or one of its affluents, but my men 
assured me it had none. 

To the south of this lake is a chain of mountains, trending in 
its eastern portion in a southeasterly direction, but becoming 
parallel to the chain to our right at its western extremity. This 
range appeared to be slightly higher than that to the north of our 
route — useless to say that my men assured me that it had no 
name, though each peak in it is provided with a high sounding 
one. The whole country hereabout shows signs of rapid erosion, 
every depression I see has been cut out of the loess and gravel by 
the action of water. All the elevations are of the misa type, of 
uniform height, with steep sides and flat tops. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 119 

About five miles before making camp we passed a few tents of 
Tashio Tibetans, near which small herds of camels were grazing, 
an unusual sight, for Tibetans do not often own these useful but 
patience-trying animals. 

At Hato, where we camped, we found an abundance of 
pebbles and sandstone boulders (hence the Mongol name of hato, 
" stony "), but very little grass. The stream which flows by this 
place is of quite a respectable size, and in the rainy season must 
be a formidable torrent. Some fifty tents of Narta Hsi-fan are 
scattered about here, and we availed ourselves of their proximity 
to buy a sheep, for which I paid a small brick of tea (fu cKa) 
and a piece of red cotton cloth {hsiao mo-hutt), the whole of the 
value of six mace of silver. A sheep lasts the party eight days ; 
when we have only rice to eat it takes two cups full a day, or if 
we only have vermicelli {kiia mien), one and a half catties. A 
brick of tea (five catties) lasts us from five to six weeks. Rice is 
decidedly the most economical food we can use and the best for 
travelers. 

The west wind blew to-day with its accustomed violence, it 
has been blowing nearly incessantly since we have left Sharakuto. 

March 22. — Shortly after starting this morning we passed a 
caravan of several hundred yaks laden with salt. The owners 
were Chu-chia Tibetans and the salt was brought from the great 
salt lake, the Ts'ak'a or Dabesu nor ("Salt lake"), about three 
days west of here. The Tibetans buy the salt from the Mongols 
(of the Wanka tribe), who obtain it by evaporation. The price 
paid for it by the Tibetans is about a sheng (a little over a quart) 
of tsamba for a bushel (t'ou). 

Three miles from camp we entered a sandy waste in which the 
only vegetation was a few thorny bushes projecting out of the 
tops of sand hillocks; the sand had drifted around them till but 
a little portion of them showed above ground. The trail led 
over a succession of undulations trending southward. Soine 
ravines or mdlahs we crossed, showed in their sides (thirty to 
fifty feet in depth) alternate layers of gravel and loess. 

When about eight miles from Hato, we came in sight of the 
Huyuyung, a good sized stream (for these parts) some twenty-five 
yards wide and about four feet deep. This stream, 1 am told, has 
its source on the very edge of the Ts'ak'a nor. We followed up 



I20 JOURNEY THROUGH 3I0NG0LIA AND TIBET. 

its left bank to Ts'o kadri where we camped, the river bottom, 
everywhere thickly covered with alkaline efflorescence, and 
hardly a blade of grass to be seen anywhere. 

Shortly before reaching the river we passed through a sand bank 
where I saw quantities of the little univalve fossil shells which 
characterize the loess. A covey of partridges rose at our approach, 
and a few antelopes {liuang yang) scampered away on sighting 
us — except these we saw no living creature. 

We are now within five or six miles of the southern range, 
which, I am told, bears here the name of Ch'ermar (or Ch'emar). 
The hills to the north of the road are considerably higher here 
than farther east, and a few peaks have snow on them, but not so 
much as on the mountains to the south. 

Again to-day the west wind has blown with great violence. 
I have noted that the temperature is higher when it blows than 
when it is calm. 

March 2j. — We crossed the Huyuyung River on the ice, and I 
was assured that this was the only time of the year when this 
stream could be traversed, as the quicksands, with which its bed 
is full, render it impassable, except when frozen over. Travelers 
going to Muri-Wahon have, except at this season, to follow the 
Huyuyung up to its source, a day's journey to the west. On 
account of the impossibility of fording this stream, all Tibetans 
living in winter along the base of the mountains to the south of 
the Huyuyung, and who are desirous of using the fine pasturage 
to the north of it, cross to the north side before the ice breaks up. 

Leaving the river we took a southwesterly course across the 
Ch'emar fang, which has, within a very recent period, formed one 
of the largest of the lakelets or sinks with which this region is 
covered. In fact it must even now, in very rainy years, be con- 
verted into a swamp, and a little stream, whose dry bed we 
crossed, connects it with the Huyuyung. 

Near the southwestern extremity of the Ch'emar mountains, as 
viewed from this point, I had pointed out to me some ruins which 
are said to be those of a Chinese fort {Ying). They are called 
Mar-k'uar or "Red fort." 

While traversing the depression just mentioned 1 saw large 
numbers of antelopes (Jiuang yatig) and wild asses, also some 
sheldrakes and a small, light brown colored bird, with a black 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. I2i 

patch on its breast. This little fellow is an agreeable twitterer, a 
rare gift among birds of these regions. 

Some seven miles from our camp of yesterday we came to a 
stream flowing north, and called the Tsatsa ch'uk'a (or gol), and 
finding the banks of the rivulet covered with fine green grass, we 
decided upon passing a day here to let the animals feed, as they 
have had hardly anything to eat, except a quart or two of barley 
daily, since leaving Sharakuto. 

The spot on which we camped was one any Mongol or Tibetan 
would have held to be an ideal one; it was sheltered from the 
west winds by a low range of hills, which here intersect the 
Tsatsa ch'uk'a; there was good water, grass, dry dung for fuel, 
and stones to build a hearth with; no one could ask for more. 

In the hills behind our camp I found a number of the little 
shells characteristic of the loess, though I noticed no loess. The 
wind blew furiously from noon well into the night, but the tem- 
perature in the middle of the day was quite warm ; the thermometer 
rises daily now in the sun to about 60° F. 

In looking over my notes on Tibet from Chinese sources,* I find 
(p. 98) that in the eighteenth century a road leading from Hsi-ning 
to Lh'asa passed by the Wayen nor, and after following up the left 
bank of the Huyuyung for some distance, struck south across the 
mountains to the Tosu nor. It passed along the north bank of this 
lake and then, by the road 1 followed in 1889, led to Karmat'ang and 
the source of the Yellow River. This itinerary shows, furthermore, 
that at that time (say 1750) there was another small lake (Sini 
nor) between the Wayen (Bayan) nor and the Gunga nor, about 
thirty miles west or west-southwest of the former. We also learn 
from this work that at the time it was written the whole country 
between Sharakuto and the Ts'aidam was inhabited by Mongols, 
and that Tibetans (Arik Fan-tzu) were then occupying the fertile 
pasture lands around the Tosu nor and Alang nor. 

March 24.. — To-day has been a most enjoyable one, no wind in 
the morning and the thermometer in the sun at noon going up to 
78° F. A Sharba trader rode by but, though he spoke a few 
words to one of my men, who was a little way from camp, he 

*Joum. Roy Asiat. Soc, new series, XXIII, 97, et seq. This road is also laid 
down on d' An villa's map (Carte Genl* du Thibet). See also Dutreuil de Rhins, 
VAsie Cenirale, 355 et seq. 



122 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

could not be induced to approach us; he feared there was some 
T'ung-shih in the party who might attempt to squeeze him. 

I went to try and shoot an antelope, but only saw a band of 
fifty to seventy-five wild asses on the Ch'emar fang, and it was 
impossible to stalk them, as there was neither cover nor a gully 
on it. A number of little streams flow across the plain from 
south to north ; they come from the mountains along its southern 
edge and disappear in the ground near the northern border of the 
plain. 

Ssu-shih-wu, who has passed much of his life among the 
Tibetan tribes of this neighborhood, tells me the chiefs or Fdnbo 
receive in the eighth month of the year from their clansmen 
presents of cattle, horses, sheep, pulo, butter, etc., which consti- 
tute the only salary they get. Their duties are, however, not 
onerous; they command their people in case of war, and with 
them watch over the pasture lands of the band, trying always to 
gain more acres and to resist the encroachments of stronger tribes. 

March 25. — We left early, as it was a long way to the Muri ch'u, 
where we had to camp, and where the donkeys hired at Lusar 
were to leave us. We passed around a spur projecting from the 
mountains to the south, but apparently not belonging geologically 
to the same formation, for it is of igneous, while the range itself 
appears to be of metamorphic rocks (fine grained bluish lime- 
stone and granite). A considerable portion of this spur has been 
covered up by loess, leaving here and there a peak a hundred feet 
or so high sticking up out of the surrounding grassy plain. From 
the main range a huge amount of dibris (limestone and granite 
pebbles) has been carried down, forming enormous cones of 
dejection, stretching into the plain a mile or more beyond the 
base of the mountains at the mouth of every gorge. 

The Muri-ch'u (or ch'uk'a) we found to be a good-sized but 
very shallow stream, flowing north-northeast over a bed of rolled 
stones, its banks rising vertically about twenty feet and showing 
that the plain is but a very thin layer of loess and sand over a thick 
bed of gravel. Erosion has changed the whole face of this country 
in very recent times, and this change is still going on rapidly. 

The Na-chia and Chu-chia Panaka live here, some hundred tents 
of them in all. It is a fine pasture land, but water is scarce. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 123 



We camped on the Muri ch'u about a mile from where it leaves 
the mountains and near the ruins of an old Tibetan camp marked 
by numerous cooking stoves and altars of stone plastered with 
dung. These stoves differ slightly from those used to the north of 
the Koko-nor. The annexed cut and elevation of one will enable 
me to dispense with further description of this ingenious contriv- 




ELEVATION AND PLAN OF TIBETAN TENT. 

T, T, T, Tent. C, Ash hole. 

W, W, Low interior walls. D, Opening to receive kettle. 

A, Place for fuel. V, Door. 

B, Fireplace. 

ance. This cut also enables one to understand the interior 
arrangement of Tibetan tents. On the altar, which is built some 
little distance from the tent, juniper spines {shuka) are burnt 
morning and evening. The low wall inside the tent keeps out 
the wind. 

I can see from here stretching to the northwest, some twelve 
miles away, the Huyuyung, and I am told that still about eight or 
ten miles farther on is the Ts'ak'a nor, from which point Dulan- 
kuo is reached in a day. The mountains, at the base of which we 
have camped, rise rapidly to the west of us, and we can see in 
that direction a number* of snow-covered peaks. I can hear of no 
general name for this range, though the people speak of the Muri 
la, the Wahon la, theSayila, etc., each peak having its own name; 
but though, after all, it is well provided with names, a foreigner 
will come along some day and give it another; 1, however, waive 
my right to do so. 



124 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

Between the Tsatsa ch'uk'a and this place we saw some three 
hundred wild asses, also quite a number of wild pigeons and 
sheldrakes. These latter neither Mongols nor Tibetans will kill, 
because their plumage is partly yellow, and they look upon them 
as "lama birds"; in fact, they call them by that name. 

March 26. — Yeh Hsien-sheng and Ssu-shih-wu went early this 
morning to the sub-chief of the Na-chia, whose tent is on the slope 
of the Muri la, about a mile and a half from ours, to hire yaks 
to carry our luggage to Shang in the Ts'aidam. 

In a few hours they returned, Ssii-shih-wu bearing the chief's 
sword, by which I at once knew that a bargain had been made 
and that his sword was the guaranty that bound him to it. The 
bargain was not a very good one; for eight yaks and two men I 
have to pay ten small bricks of tea worth 4.0 taels, two bricks of 
fine tea, of the same value as the first, and eighteen pieces of red 
calico (Jisiao mo-hun')* worth 46 tael cents a piece; total, 13.08 
taels, but these goods are valued here at 25 taels. 

I endeavored to induce the sub-chief, Wang-ma-bum by name, 
to take me to Shang vid the Tosu nor (the trail 1 have previously 
referred to as known to the Chinese in the last century), but he 
said it was impassable at this season of the year on account of the 
ice and the enormous quantities of snow on the mountains. This 
trail, he explained to me, led over the Amnye Malchin (the most 
sacred mountain of the Panaka and K'amba), and is only practic- 
able in the seventh and eighth months, when some of the Na-chia, 
Chu-chia and Su-chia Panaka take it to hunt yaks and dig rhubarb 
near the Tosu nor. It takes about fifteen days to reach Shang by 
this road. 

1 had been led to believe that the Golok confined their raids to 
the Mongol country, but I now hear that a party of them made a 
razzia in this valley last year. 

The grass has all been eaten up around here by the flocks and 
herds of the Tibetans, and so my ponies and mules are not profiting 
much by the rest, esj>ecially as from our proximity to the black 
tents and the irresistible inclination of this people for horse steal- 
ing, we have to tie the mules and horses close to the tents from 
dark to dawn. We will leave here to-morrow and probably find 

* Called Rds rlung in Panaka Tibetan. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 125 

good grazing up the Wahon valley where Tibetans have not been 
since last summer. 

The donkey men go back to-morrow to Lusar, and I have given 
them my home letters and telegrams, which they will deliver to 
the Inland Mission people at Hsi-ning, by whom they will be 
forwarded to Lan-chou where there is a post and telegraph 
office. 

March 27. — Passing over the foothills of the Muri la, in the 
depressions of which were some thirty to forty tents of the Su- 
chia and Na-chia tribes, we saw from the highest of them a corner 
of the Ts'ak'a nor glistening in the distance. Turning southward, 
we entered the mountains and followed up the course of the 
Wahon ch'u (or ch'uk'a), a clear mountain torrent of considerable 
volume which is probably the principal feeder of the Huyuyung. 
The mountains rose precipitately on either side with hardly any 
vegetation or even soil on their flanks of granite, and the bottom 
of the valley was so thickly strewn with dibris that one might 
well have thought that dynamite had been used to blow the 
rocks to pieces, so finely were they shattered. 

A few miles up the valley we found, at the base of a nearly ver- 
tical wall of red and rose-colored granite, fine, long, green grass, 
and here we camped, and the animals had soon filled themselves 
with the succulent food and were able to enjoy a long and well- 
earned rest. This place is called Wahon omsa (" lower Wahon") . 

Old Wang-ma-bum, our guide, is a queer specimen of the Panaka 
Tibetan ; a little, wizzened-up fellow of about fifty, with shaven 
head and no beard,* a piercing eye and spare but well-muscled 
body, only imperfectly wrapped in a big sheepskin ch'uba. His pet 
exclamation is Om mani, ox yim den-ba, "it is true," either one 
or the other of which he appends to every ten words he speaks. 
The Tibetans of Central Tibet he calls Gopa, which word I take 
to be a corrupt pronunciation of Bo-pa (Bod-pa). f He has 
traveled not only to Lh'asa, but also into the Golok country. 
Of these latter people he says that they have at the most five 
chiefs, and that their country is so poor that they cannot buy 

* The Panaka pluck out their beards with tweezers (chyain ts'er), one of which 
every man canies suspended around his neck or hanging from his belt. The Lh'asa 
people frequently wear moustaches. 

t Pronounced Beu (or Peu) ba in Central Tibet. 



126 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

tsamba or flour, twelve bowls full of which are counted as the 
price of a sheep. Sheep are rare among them, but they have large 
numbers of cattle. They live in black tents like the Panaka, and 
he has never heard, as I had, that any inhabited caves. They eat 
chura and butter like other Tibetans, and, of course, drink quan- 
tities of tea (from Chiung-chou). 

March 28. — The dibris in the bottom of the valley increased in 
quantity as we advanced, and to-day it is in many places over a 
hundred feet deep on either side of the stream. Numerous skulls 
of mountain sheep {^Ovis poll, pan yang in Chinese, Rnyen in 
Tibetan) lay scattered about, and the guide told me that this 
splendid animal is very common all through these mountains; we 
saw none, however, only a few wild asses and half a dozen 
yaks. 

The Wahon ch'u, less than a mile above where we camped last 
night, disappears under the mass of dibris which fills the valley, 
so we had to ascend to the snow line and there let our animals 
slack their thirst with snow ; they had, however, to go without 
food, not a blade of grass was to be seen, only a little moss grow- 
mg here and there on the stones around the place where we 
camped. We gave our ponies and mules a little barley and they 
huddled together under a ledge of rock near our camp to get 
away from the piercing wind. 

The place where we camped is known as Wahon jamkar, from 
it the pass we have to cross is visible, and it looks appalling, a 
wall of snow from the base to the very summit. It will prove a 
difficult task to scale it. 

In the afternoon about an inch of snow fell, and during the 
night the thermometer fell to + 14° Fahrenheit. 

I tried in the evening after dinner, when all were placidly and 
contentedly seated around the fire, to get some information from 
Wang-ma-bum concerning the number of persons in the different 
bands of Panaka. He was very communicative until 1 said that I 
wished he would repeat what he had just said, that I would like 
to write down the figures he had given me. He refused and said, 
rather excitedly, that if I wanted to talk he was willing, but if I 
proposed writing down what he said he would not say another 
word. He imagined, probably, that I wanted to use the informa- 
tion gained in estimating the resources of each band, so as to be 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 127 

able to raid their country some day with a party of my own 
people. 

I ascertained, however, from the old fellow, that the Chamri 
were the most numerous (five thousand families) of the Panaka 
between the Yellow River and the lake (Koko nor), the other 
bands ranging from fifty or sixty tents to one hundred and fifty 
and two hundred, also that the Panaka south of the Yellow River 
were much more numerous than those north of it. During the 
Mohammedan rebellion some of the Panaka bands, among others 
the Su-Na-chia, that of my informant, moved from their present 
location to Shang-chia in the Ts'aidam, and only came back to 
their present location when troubles were over. 

March 2g. — This has proved a terribly hard day. The rocks 
which covered the bottom of the gorge were entirely hidden by 
snow, over these we plunged and slid for nearly two miles, when 
we found ourselves at the foot of the principal ascent. By this time 
it was past noon, but we stopped to reconnoitre the pass and 
readjust the loads of the mules and yaks. The guide and Yeh 
Hsien-sheng returning reported the pass nearly closed, and 
Wang-ma-bum suggested that we should turn back and take the 
Ts'ak'a nor and Dulan-kuo route to Shang. I refused, and insisted 
that we could cross the pass if no time was lost in talking and 
we went about it in the usual ka-le, ka-li, "slow, slow," way. 

After trying the pass itself and finding it absolutely impracticable 
from the great depth of soft snow, we attacked it by the moun- 
tain on its eastern side, and up its steep sides we struggled, where 
the sharp stones cut the feet of horses and men, and after innumer- 
able falls we finally made our way to the summit. It took us four 
hours to reach it, though the distance was not over a mile and a 
half by the zigzag trail we followed. 

From the top we saw a maze of mountains to the south and 
east, and to the west the broad reddish plain of the Ts'aidam was 
dimly discernible. The prevailing color of the mountains was 
brick red, and very little snow was visible anywhere on them, 
even on the great range to the south of the Ts'aidam — the Kun- 
lun of our maps. 

The south side of the pass was steeper than the one we had just 
ascended, but snow covered it so deeply that we made the descent 
without danger by simply sliding down through it. Reaching the 



128 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

valley bottom, we found the snow over four feet deep, and the 
yaks could not get through it till we had opened a trail with the 
mules, who were of infinitely more service to us in this trying 
place than the yaks of whom we had, however, expected 
wonders. 

To add to our trouble it began snowing heavily before we got 
below the snow line, and darkness overtook us, so we scraped 
away the snow from a large flat rock and put up our tents, but 
were too worn out to either eat or sleep. When 1 had lit a candle 
we all burst out laughing as we looked at each other; we were as 
black as negroes, and our eyes were so swollen and blood-shot 
that the tears ran down our ebony cheeks even in this dim light. 
Had the sun shown during the day our sufferings would have 
been terrible, notwithstanding the horse-hair eye-shades we all 
wore. 

The pass we had crossed bears no name, though it should 
properly be called Wahon la, being at the source of the Wahon 
ch'u. It is approximately 16,500 feet above sea level, and from 
its western flank issues the Tsatsa gol, which flows through the 
northeastern corner of the Ts'aidam, while on its southern side the 
Tsahan ossu or "White River" has its source. The road we 
propose following will take us down the course of this latter 
river — whose very existence has not heretofore been suspected, 
until near where it enters the Ts'aidam plain. 

The place where we camped is called Kukuse, a Tibetan mispro- 
nunciation, I fancy, of Koko ossu, "Blue River," the name of a 
rivulet which empties into the main branch of the Tsahan ossu, a 
mile or so lower down than this camp. 

March 30. — We left by daylight, as we wanted to reach some 
place where we could procure fuel and cook a little food. After 
a few miles through deep snow we reached the main valley of the 
Tsahan ossu and left the snow behind. The snow line on this 
side of the Wahon la, as I shall call this mountain, is at least a 
thousand feet lower than on the northern slope. The predominant 
formation is still granite. 

We noticed in the distance several large herds of wild yaks, 
hares, very large crows, a variety of bird that I took for a flicker, 
and a small greyish brown bird were also quite numerous. I saw 
quite a number of skulls of big-horns {Ovis Poli). 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 129 

The general direction of the range before us is west-northwest 
and south-southeast, and its summits rise 2,000 to 3, 000 feet above 
the valley, which in places is, perhaps — counting its width from 
the summits to the north to the crest of the southern range, two 
to three miles wide. Many patches of loess are visible on the 
mountain sides, and along the river bank there is a great deal of 
gravel and broken, angular pieces of stone. Reddish clay is 
abundant, I should have noted, on the southern slopes of the range 
we have just crossed. 

We sighted two or three hundred yaks drinking in the river, 
and 1 wounded three. It was a glorious sight to see the 
whole herd dashing across ravines and through snow drifts up a 
lateral valley. 1 followed them for several miles, and though two 
of the wounded animals were losing quantities of blood, I failed 
to get again within range, for the melting snow and the slippery 
clayey soil were too much for my pony. I did not want to 
take any Ts'aidam ponies with me into Tibet, experience had 
proven them to be worthless for the kind of work 1 had before me, 
and so I had to give up the chase, as I could not afford to overwork 
the good little Konsa pony I was riding. 

We camped on the bank of the river in a miserably bleak spot 
where the wind and the driving snow made it most uncomfortable 
for us all night, and where our cattle got very little grass or rest. 
A couple of bears came wandering about among the rocks near 
us, but we were all too tired to think of shooting. From what 
old Wang-ma-bum tells me the Tsahan ossu is the same stream 
which I crossed in '89, in the Ts'aidam, when on my way to 
Baron kure, and which is there called Shara gol. It is like all the 
rivers of this region, much shallower and of smaller volume in its 
lower course than at its head, much of the water being lost in the 
sands and swampy grounds when it leaves the hills. 

March 31. — We moved down the Tsahan ossu about ten miles 
and came to a spot where grass and fuel were abundant, and where 
we decided to rest for a day, as much for the sake of the yaks and 
mules as for our own. We are all suffering terribly from snow 
blindness, even the Panaka have not been spared. We passed a 
hot spring {hotun ossu), but the weather was so bad, the snow 
driving in our eyes made us so anxious to reach camp as fast as 
possible, that I omitted taking the temperature of the water. I 
doubt if it was much over 70° Fahrenheit. 



I30 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

On the mountain side near where we camped we saw some 
wild yaks, and I shot a fine young heifer; the meat is, though 
I don't care for yak meat, most acceptable, as we have exhausted 
our supply of mutton, and we have still three days traveling before 
we reach Shang. 

Every evening, when the two Tibetans who accompany me and 
who camp away from us under the shelter of our luggage piled 
up in a semi-circle around them, have got their frugal meal of 
meat and tea ready, one of them arranges in two rows twenty- 
six bits of burning dung, and on these he puts a little shuka 
in which tsamba, butter and salt have been mixed (the two latter 
ingredients to make it burn the better) ; then they both stand 
facing the south and, bare headed with joined palms, shout in 
a wild and apparently angry tone, a long prayer to the gods, 
among which the Amnye ("forefathers")* are especially men- 
tioned, asking their protection for themselves, their flocks and 
herds. Then they make three prostrations, and finally circum- 
ambulate the fire keeping it on their right side and never ceasing 
their furious praying. 

My sextant work, surveying and drawing, in the terribly 
inflamed condition of my eyes, has become most painful. 1 find 
some relief in holding my face over the boiling kettle, the steam 
soothes the pain considerably. This is the usual remedy used by 
the natives, t 

Wang-ma-bum, though passed fifty, vaults on to his horse's 
back by resting his left hand on the pummel of his saddle and 
grasping in his right his long lance, its butt end resting on the 
ground. This is the usual way for an armed Tibetan to get into 
the saddle, and is a very graceful one. 

* For a list of the Amnye see Land of the Lamas, 94. Each Amnye is supposed 
to reside on a certain high peak, usually some great snow-covered mountain. Gesar 
(the Chinese Kuan-ti) is one of the most powerful Amnye. There are many 
mountains besides those mentioned in the list referred to above to which this word is 
prefixed. 

t Father Acosta, in his History of the Indies, (Hakluyt Soc. edit), I, 288, tells 
us that when once crossing the Andes he was greatly troubled with snow blindness, 
and, " being troubled with this paine, and out of patience, there came an Indian 
woman which said to me, ' Father, lay this to thine eies, and thou shalt be cured.' 
It was a piece of the flesh of vicunas, newly killed and all bloody. I used this 
medicine and presently the pain ceased, and soon after went quite away." 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 131 

April I. — The whole day was taken up by work in my tent, 
writing up my notes, working out my route sketches, and, last 
but not least, doctoring my eyes. 

Last night the thermometer fell to —10 Fahrenheit, but as there 
was no wind, the cold was quite bearable. To-day at 2 p. m., it 
stood (in the sun) at -I-54 and at 7 p. m. it had fallen again to -|-8.° 
The two or three inches of snow which fell yesterday, have 
already disappeared in exposed places; throughout all this region 
it riielts with wonderful rapidity. 

April 2. — The trail continued down the Tsahan ossu valley, the 
dibris (loess and gravel) at the mouths of the lateral valleys 
was in many places over one hundred feet thick. Some miles 
below camp a good-sized stream, coming from the southeast, 
empties into the river. From this point onward for over six miles 
the valley is considerably broader than higher up, and must have 
been quite a "park" before the dibris from the mountains on 
either side had filled it with rows of low hillocks, cut through 
here and there by torrents. We see no signs of anyone ever 
inhabiting this splendid pasture land, only a few old hearth stones 
and some manure show that man ever passes this way. In 
summer, 1 am told, the Rerin gongma — "Upper Rerin " (to dis- 
tinguish them from the "Lower" or chuong-ma branch of the 
tribe living near the Mud ch'u), travel this road when on their way 
from Shang to Lusar. To-day has been the second since we left 
Lusar in which there has been absolutely no wind. Last night 
again was very cold, the thermometer falling to +0° before 8 p. M. 
The ice on the river is in places two feet thick. We saw a few 
wild yaks, some hares and magpies. 

A few miles beyond where we have camped to-day, the river 
takes a west-northwest bend, and though it has in this part of its 
course several considerable affluents, the volume of its water is 
less than higher up its course. 

April 3. — Three miles below our camp of last night we left the 
Tsahan ossu, and passing over some gravelly hills and across some 
alkaline flats entered the basin of a little affluent coming from the 
Koko k'utul (" Blue pass "). The ascent was very easy, although 
we had to flounder for half a mile before reaching the summit 



132 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 



through very deep snow which filled every hollow. The hillsides 
were covered with fine grass, and we saw many Hsi-fan fire-places ; 
the Rerin camp here in summer. 

From the summit of the pass we could distinguish, apparently 

only a few miles away the Bayan gol (lower course of the Yogore) 

and the reddish yellow plain of the Ts'aidam, 

behind which rose the South Ts'aidam mountains 

(our Kun-lun). 

The descent was very steep for the first 
thousand feet, as is the case with nearly all 
southern slopes of passes throughout this region, 
over a mass oi debris (mostly limestone), then we 
came to a gently sloping valley, covered with 
fine grass and juniper trees scattered about on 
the hillsides, and in sheltered nooks were numer- 
ous black tents belonging to the Rerin. This 
valley leads down to the Mongol town of Shang, 
and is inhabited in the upper portion, called Keter 
gun ("come twice") by Rerin Panaka, and in 
the lower, known as Derben chin (or Jya-ma bji, 
"Four catties"), by Shang Mongols.* 

The temperature this evening is much warmer 
than that we have heretofore experienced since 
leaving Lusar at the same hour. At 7 p. M. the 
thermometer stood at +23° Fahrenheit, while 
yesterday at the same hour it was +4°. 8. 

My Panaka guides were much worried because 
they could not make their burnt offerings this 
evening, they had no argols on which to 
burn the incense, and insisted that cedar 
wood, with which we had built a roaring 
fire, was not suitable, though 1 called their 
attention to its fragrance. 



SPINDLE OF PANAKA 
TIBETANS. 



April 4. — Some Rerin Tibetans stopped us about a mile below 
camp, but seeing that we were well armed let us proceed. No 
Mongol or Chinese traders ever venture to come this way as these 
Panaka would levy such blackmail from them that they would be 
ruined. As we advanced, the hills on our right — the last south- 
western slopes of the range through which we have been traveling 

* I could obtain no satisfactory explanation of these names. 




BoNBo LAMAS IN Inn-Yard at Kuei-te. 




Camp of Rerin gongma Panaka near Shang. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 133 

since leaving Muri-Wahon, dwindled away to insignificant 
hilloclcs, their southwestern extremity a rocky spur some four 
hundred to five hundred feet high, abutting on the Y6gore gol. 
The hills on our left (the southeastern side of the valley) were 
higher, with two distinct peaks, that farther down the valley called 
Noyen hung, probably fifteen hundred feet high. 

We stopped at some Rerin tents to buy a sheep, and I availed 
myself of the opportunity to photograph the camp. While so 
doing a small boy came running towards me but a woman seized 
him and shouted out " don't go near him, he can make a hundred 
soldiers come out of that box ! " * The Chinese are often quite 
as foolish. While traveling to Kuei-te two soldiers passed me 
while I was using my prismatic compass. One said to the other 
" He is looking for gold deposits in the river, he can see them by 
looking through that little box he has in his hand." 

About ten miles down the valley we came to some fifteen Mongol 
tents, the farthest camp the Shang Mongols have in this direction. 
They live in dread of their thieving neighbors, the Rerin, but the 
latter appear to be in nearly as great dread of them, for while we 
were trying to buy the sheep, 1 asked one of the Tibetans to guide 
me to Shang as I wanted to ride ahead of my party and feared to 
lose myself, but he refused for fear of the Mongols in the lower 
part of the valley. 

The distance to Shang proved greater than we had anticipated, 
over twenty-four miles over sandy soil. When near the Yogore 
we passed some land under cultivation, irrigation ditches being 
cut from here to the river. We had some difficulty in fording the 
river in front of Shang, as it was nearly three-fourths of a mile 
wide and quite swift, though fortunately shallow. There was 
still a good deal of ice on it, in places eight or nine inches thick. 

The new Tibetan governor of Shang (he had arrived a week or 
two after my first visit to this place in 1889)! took me for a trader 
and tried to squeeze me before allowing me to enter the town. 
He sent a number of envoys to confer with me, the first a poor devil 
of a Jack of all trades, called Shara-wanza, who had been my 

*Moorcroft when in Kunduzsays, " Baba Beg apprised me that some persons had 
been telling strange stories of us to the Mir; amongst other things, that we had a 
fortress concealed in our packages, with artillery which went off of its own accord, and 
had the power of discriminating friends from foes." W. Moorcroft, Travels in the 
Himalayan Provinces of India, 11, 419. 

\ See Land of the Lamas, 144 et seq. 



134 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

factotum during my first visit here, then a Chinese trader, then a 
dirty Tibetan from Tsang, and finally his steward. Each one told 
me that the K'anpo insisted on my leaving Shang, as it was Tibetan 
governed territory, and the Tashil'unpo lamas would be much 
vexed if they learned that he had allowed me to visit it. I finally 
sent the Hsien-sheng to him with my passport, visiting card and 
a k'atag, and told him that I was astonished at his incivility, that 
his predecessor had treated me with great politeness, given me a 
fine tent, entertained me, and that we had parted the best of 
friends. He apologized, said he was not conversant with official 
customs, and begged me to make myself at home, regretting that 
he had no tent to lend me. Later in the day I learned that ever 
since my first visit t^e crops had failed, and that most of the cattle 
had died from the murrain which has swept over all the Koko-nor 
and adjacent country, and that I had been considered the cause of 
all the trouble.* 

April 3. — Although I staid at Shang nearly a fortnight in 1889, 
and knew nearly every living soul in the town, only a very few 
have vouchsafed to recognize me this time. The Chinese here 
assure me that this is a Mongol custom, a strange one to say the 
least, and confined to this place, as far as my experience goes. 

Everything is fearfully dear here this year, two pounds of butter 
are exchanged for a sheep, barley sells for a tael of silver a bushel 
{t'ou). I sent the K'anpo a small present to-day and he promised 
to send return presents to-morrow. 

My Panaka guides left this morning with their yaks, as there is 
no grass around this place. Before leaving they begged for 
first one thing and then another, until I got mad with them 
and turned them out of my tent. These people are insatiable, and 
one should be very careful when dealing with them, never to give 
them anything until they have completely fulfilled the bargain 
made, whether it be to guide or do something else for you. If 

* Shang pays a yearly tribute to the Panch'en rinpoch'e of Tashil'unpo of 3 ;)/««»- 
pao (150 taets). The lama who governs the district for him receives annually from 
each ta chia (i. e. , all the tents occupied by members of a same family, married 
ones included,) twelve sheep, one each month. He on his side gives yearly to each 
family a little k'atag, and in return he receives from each a certain number of lamb- 
skins, nominally "to line his clothes." The second lama (colloquially called the 
K'anpo) gets whatever he can squeeze from the people. All the property which a 
person had in actual personal use at the time of his death, such as clothes, boots, 
saddles, horses, gun, etc., goes to the lama on his demise. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 135 

one begins from tiie start to make them small presents to keep 
them in good humor, they will pester one's life out. This remark 
applies to Mongols also, though in a less degree. 

To-day has been very hot, the thermometer in my tent at 1.30 
p. M. stood at 78° Fahrenheit, and in the sun at 87° Fahrenheit. 
It is positively oppressive, the change has been so sudden. 

I heard that the Djassak of Baron, my former acquaintance of 
'89, is now living at Oim, a little valley opening on to the Ike 
gol and a day's ride from here. The Hsien-sheng will go there 
to-morrow to see Dowe, my former guide to Jyakundo, and learn 
if he will assist me this time. 

April 6. — Most of my time to-day has been taken up buying 
barley, hair hobbles, ropes, and various other necessary odds and 
ends, and also ethnological specimens. Flat pearl buttons, small 
jack-knives and needles were in great demand, five buttons or 
needles buying a pair of hobbles. For a fine matchlock I gave an 
Alashan saddle-rug, a brick of tea and a jack-knife. 

I was very sorry to hear to-day from a Chinese trader just 
arrived from Oim that Dowe had lost the sight of one eye, and 
that the other was in a very inflamed condition and of little use 
to him, I fear he will not be able to accompany me. 

There are here four Mongol lamas from Manchuria, one a Solon. 
The latter is waiting to join the yearly caravan from Tankar 
to Lh'asa, which is due in the Ts'aidam in May. He is a fine 
looking fellow as white as I am, and has quite a European cast of 
features. Eastern Mongol lamas like living here, as the usage of 
the country admits of their having wives, whereas in Tibet or 
their own country such a thing would not be tolerated. 

The meteorological record to-day in the shade, from 6 a. m., to 
7 p. M. , is as follows : 

ATMOSPHERE. 

Cirro-stratus ^ 
(I 

W . breeze 

Very light S. breeze Ciro-cumul. Strato. cirrus 
These figures are all much higher than on the same date in 1889. 



HOUR. 


TEMP. 


6 A. M. 


-1-35° F. Calm. 


7 „ 


39-1 


10 „ 

12 ., 


443 

68^ Light N 


2 P. M. 

4 ., 
6 .. 


67-5 
61:2 

53?2 Verylig 


7 .. 


51° 



136 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

April 7. — I heard that the present K'anpo on arriving here was 
horrified at the morals of his subjects, he imposed heavy fines on 
all offenders, but from what I learn he has not yet been able to 
produce from among the people a candidate for the Prix Montyon 
or any other prize for virtue. There will never be a rosiire in this 
country. 

Last night the Solon lama told me a curious yarn which I learnt 
was widespread among the Mongols. He said that some five 
hundred years ago the Emperor of Russia (or a foreign Emperor, 
for Olosu has either meaning), desirous of knowing what was in 
the sun, had taken fifty Mongol men and as many women and, 
shutting them up in a crystal casket which had the power of flying, 
had started them off on a voyage of discovery to the sun. Since 
then nothing has been heard of the explorers, and the Mongols 
bear a grudge against this Emperor, whoever he may be, who 
practiced such cruelty on their people. 

We are now in the month of Ramazan, and all the Chinese here 
fast very strictly, only drinking tea between sunrise and sunset, 
but my men, being travelers, are free to eat when they will or, 
rather, can. 

A very fine quality of rhubarb grows in the mountains south of 
Shang. The Chinese dig the root in the fifth and sixth moons, 
when the shrub is as high as a man. Rhubarb is called shara 
butuk by the Mongols, they use a good deal of it as a dye, but its 
medicinal properties are unknown to most of them. 

In Taichiniir a great deal of excellent licorice {sha-nyar\x\ Koko- 
nor Tibetan) is found, but it has no marketable value. Around 
Kuei-te and on the Huyuyung it is also abundant, and I have seen 
a little of it for sale at Kumbum. 

In the evening the Hsien-sheng and Dowe arrived from Oim, 
and the latter showed great pleasure at seeing me again. He 
brought a message from his chief asking me to come and camp 
near him, where grass and water were abundant. Should 1 wish 
to visit the Tosu nor, he added, as he had learned from my Hsien- 
sheng that I wanted to do, Dowe was to guide me and bring me 
back to Oim by an easy road through the mountains. 

Dowe told me that in 1889, after he had left me at Jyakundo, he 
returned to Nyamts'o Purdung's camp and stayed there several 
days. The old chief told him to tell me that should I return to 
the Ts'aidam in two years, as I had said 1 would, I was not to 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 137 

come back to Nyam-ts'o, as his people had been greatly displeased 
at the friendliness of the reception given me, they contending that I 
had only come to take treasures out of their mountains and streams. 
Should I show myself again there, the old chief went on to say, 
he feared his people might revolt and kill both him and me. 

The old Tibetan who had guided me fromjyakundo to Kanze, 
Dowe also told me, had been seized by the people there shortly 
after my departure and some said that they had killed him, while 
other reports had it that the Ch'ien-tsung, Lu Ming-yang, had been 
able to deliver him from the mob and get him safely, though after 
much trouble, out of town.* 

Dowe has only recently returned from Lh'asa where he went 
with his Dzassak, leaving here in the fourth moon and getting 

* The following letter from Fu T'ung-shih and two other petty officers accom- 
panying him, and of whom I have spoken in Land of the Lamas, 133, et passim, 
was forwarded to me at Shanghai and tells of what befell my two servants left by 
me at Jyakundo in 1889, when I had to make a rush through Derge and the Horba 
country to reach Ta-chien-lu. From other sources of information opened to me on 
my second visit to Ta-chien-lu, the story in this letter is corroborated. It runs as 
follows, after the usual flowery preamble : 

"After Your Excellency had left this district the local lama and the tribesmen heard 
of you, so they armed themselves and went several li in pursuit 'to kill the foreigner,' 
but they could not overtake you and returned. They then seized your servant Liu, 
and Miao Ting-hsin, near the T'ung-tien River (Yang-tzu kiang), bound and beat 
them and commanded them to tell where the foreigner was and deliver him up, or 
be decapitated as traitors for intriguing with a foreigner to make trouble in Tibet. 

" Twelve days later we heard of this, and hurrying to the place we settled the 
matter by paying official fees, 10 and 11 rupees, and giving a bond that no foreigner 
should ever come to disturb Tibet. 

' 'At the Erh Tao Ho (probably at the ferry over the Dre ch'u) the two men were again 
arrested, and we went there, arranged the matter, and paid i rupee for fees. Liu 
Ch'un-shan and his comrade Miao, when they reach you will themselves relate all 
their fears and sufferings. 

" The above-mentioned bond which we and the local headmen gave is of the 
greatest importance. If you, Sir, should not exercise magnanimous forbearance, but 
should in your anger send troops against Tibet, we who have pledged ourselves 
would be entirely ruined and charged with treason and bribery. 

" Hence we now write to beg of you to bounteously forgive what was done and 
thus receive public gratitude as well as our heartfelt thanks for the personal favors 
which you will have shown to us. 

" Thanking you for all your kindnesses to us and with best wishes for your welfare. 
"Your stupid brothers, 

"HSIEH WEN-CH'ANG, 

(" Civil officer.) 

"CHANG CH'ENG-CHIH, 

(" Military officer.) 

" FU PING-CHING, 

(" Interpreter.) 

" Knock their heads and submit this letter, 5th moon, 14th day (1889)." 



138 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

back in the ninth. He says that when they passed Nagch'ulc'a 
they were warned that if ever they led foreigners into Tibet they 
would be put to death. 1 do not believe the whole of his story, 
though 1 think it probable that, in view of Bonvalot's recent 
journey, they may have been warned against guiding foreigners. 

April 8. — The K'anpo has forbidden anyone serving me as 
guide on my proposed trip to the Tosu nor. Neither Mongols 
nor Chinese may go, nor must anyone hire me pack animals. If 
I want to go I can go by myself. Dowe reported this to me, and 
I at once went to see the K'anpo and have it out with him. He 
received me very courteously in a little room arranged in true 
Tibetan style, and 1 conversed with him through a Chinese 
interpreter who translated what I said into Mongol and this was 
again translated into Tibetan by a Shigatse man of the K'anpo's 
suite. I preferred this roundabout way as I could then hear all 
the side talk of the K'anpo with his people without his suspecting 
that I understood him. 

He denied emphatically that he had issued orders forbidding 
Chinese to accompany me to the Tosu nor, the prohibition only 
extended to his Shang-chia Mongols, for he feared if the news came 
to the ears of the Tashil'unpo authorities they would be displeased 
at his allowing a foreigner to travel about in Shang under their 
guidance. 1, of course, he went on to say, might " go to the 
sky" if I saw fit (he meant the devil, I suppose), he had nothing 
to do with my movements. I told him that the people were 
saymg that the drought of the last two years had been caused by 
my first visit here (he himself had started the report), and 1 begged 
him to state now in the presence of the crowd which surrounded 
us, that this was nonsensical. This he did, with poor grace 1 
must admit, saying that the Mongols were very ignorant and 
superstitious, and that he himself was new to official life, and if 
he had appeared discourteous to me he had not intended to, and 
begged I would accept his excuses. 

I presented him a few odds and ends as a present, together with 
the obligatory k'atag, and after swallowing a few cups of tea took 
my leave. 

A Chinese trader from Shang-wu chuang arrived to-day and 
reported that when at Dulan-kuo he had heard from some Korluk 
Mongols that twenty-two foreign women were on their way to 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 139 

the Taichinar and Tibet.* The air is full of reports about foreigners, 
and everyone fears their advent, though no one can say why. 

April p. — Three camels I hired yesterday to carry my luggage to 
the camp of the Dzassak of Baron Ts'aidam, in the Oim valley, got 
here at about 10 a. m. to-day, and it was 11 before the loads were 
on them and we were all ready to start, I with Dowe, Ssu-shih-wu 
and Chi-hsiang for the Tosu nor, and the Hsien-sheng and Kao 
pa-erh, with the camels and mules, for Oim. 

Just as 1 was about to mount my pony, it was taken danger- 
ously sick, and though Dowe doctored it, blowing a decoction of 
saffron water and salt up its nostrils, it was too ill to be of any 
use, so 1 had to take another and leave my own behind. It had 
probably eaten poison-weed, which is quite common hereabout. 
Everyone held that the sudden illness of the pony was a very bad 
omen for the success of the journey, and many, Dowe among 
others, shook their heads ominously. 

We followed up the course of the Yogore, taking a rough trail 
over the steep foothills along the left bank, the ground composed 
in great part of disintegrated granite and a mixture of clay and 
sand. There was a great deal of water in the river which, in 
places, was one hundred and fifty feet wide, though nowhere over 
four or five feet deep. Mosquitoes swarmed along the river 
banks in the willow brush, fine big ones they were, worthy of 
New Jersey. We camped in the brush near the river about fifteen 
miles from Shang, and sat around a blazing fire of dead wood, 
the heat from which was very pleasant, for in these mountains the 
sun has hardly set, no matter how hot the day has been, before 
it grows bitterly cold. 

When we had finished drinking a big kettle of tea, my men, in 
true Mongol fashion, put the leaves on the hearth stones on which 
the kettle rested; this practice is held to be equivalent to burning 
incense or making an oblation to the gods, and is usually observed 
by Chinese frontiersmen, even though they profess Islam. In 
case a hearth stone cracks they are always careful to smear it 
with a little butter — "for good luck" they say. These are the 
only two customs observed by Mongols in connection with the 
fire-place, and they are, 1 believe, of Tibetan origin. 

* This may refer to a number of Swedish women who arrived in Eastern Mongolia 
(or Kuei-hua ch'eng) sometime during the winter of iSgi-'ga, or in the spring of 
'92, "to proselytize the heathen." 



HO JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

Dowe says it takes six days to travel around the Tosu nor, which 
would make its circumference about eighty miles, and this agrees 
fairly well with what old Wang-ma-bum. my Tibetan guide from 
Muri-Wahon told me, when he said it was about one-quarter the 
size of the Koko-nor. Dowe also said that the Amnye malchin is 
so far from the Tosu nor that it is barely visible from the west end 
of the lake on a clear day, 

April lo. — It began to snow about midnight, and by 5 o'clock 
this morning there was four inches of snow on the ground, so we 
had to wait in camp until 8.30, by which time the sun had melted 
most of the snow on the level ground and we could travel com- 
fortably. 

We stopped at a small camp where Dowe's brother-in-law lives 
and bought a sheep from him, as 1 found that we had started out 
with only a shoulder and neck of mutton. The sheep we bought 
had four horns, and we saw in the little flock from which it was 
taken a large number with the same deformity. Six horns are not 
uncommon, 1 was told, but the Mongols try to kill off such animals. 

We crossed the Y6gore near the mouth of the Kado go!. When 
I first visited this valley in '89 1 wrote down the name of this little 
stream Katu gol, but Dowe, a good authority on all such subjects, 
says its name is Kado, a Tibetan expression, meaning " mouth ot 
two (valleys)."* 

We camped near the mouth of the valley leading to the During 
(or Durun) ula, a trail 1 had followed in 1889. Before we reached 
camp all the snow fallen during the night had disappeared and the 
ground was as dry as before. The soil in the bottom of the valley 
is a mixture of loess and granitic gravel, the loess has evidently 
been washed down and rests on top of the gravel, which is 01 
angular bits of stone detached from the adjacent range by the 
disintegrating action of the frost. 

Dowe says that while at Lh'asa last year he heard that in the 
recent Sikkim trouble between the British and the Lh'asa people, 
the P"yling (" foreigners ") had killed three thousand ( !) Tibetans, 
while the latter had only killed one British officer, who had been 

* See Land of the Lamas, 153. In the same work instead of Yogore, I wrote 
the name of that river Yohure ; the Dzassak of Baron assured me, however, that 
Yogore was the correct pronunciation. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 141 

Stabbed by a wounded man whom he had got off his horse to 
assist.* 

April IT. — It blew very hard in the night and I feared the wind 
would be followed by snow, but in the morning the sun shone 
brightly and we got off by 7. 15. We followed the whole day the 
bank of the Yogore, over a mass of debris of sandstone and basaltic 
rocks of gravel, loess and rolled pebbles. We found fine grass 
growing around the springs, which are very numerous here- 
about in the valley bottom. We also saw two small coveys of 
partridges, some hares, magpies, eagles, crows and hawks. 

The only gorges of any length we saw opening on to the 
valley of the Y6gore are the one leading to the During ula and 
one on the west side of the valley and a few miles farther 
south, and called K6kose. As far as we could see up this latter 
gorge it was one deep mass of broken rocks, over which 
tumbled a brook. The dibris, which in places filled the gorges 
of the Yogore, is in many places from a hundred to a hundred 
and fifty feet thick. The river is very swift and about three and 
one-half feet deep. 

We stopped about half a mile north of the mouth of the Kokose 
to drink tea, and at this point, or a little beyond it, we came in 
sight of the two principal peaks in this portion of the range and 
the only ones on which there appeared to be much snow, the 
Turgen ula and the Tsahan horga, one on either side of the valley. 

A few miles farther up, on reaching the edge of a little lateral 
gorge, I saw a large herd of wild asses, and 1 killed three, but lost 
two in the river and the third dropped dead after swimming the 
river, and we had not time to dress it. I also wounded one of 
a large herd of wild goats, but the smallness of the bullet of my 
carbine made me lose my game, as it usually does unless I hit 
it in a vital spot. 

The Yogore valley narrowed considerably above the Kokose 
gorge and the path was very bad, most of the way a mere goat 
trail and in places very dangerous and slippery. 

We made about twenty-six miles and camped at the junction 
of the Alang gol with the Yogore, a place marked by three fine 
springs and also by a large obo. It is known as Kawa obo.f 

* I believe this officer was a major, of whose death I remember reading at the time 
in the Indian papers. 

f Meaning, probably, " the white obo." 



142 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

The Caroline mountains were visible from here stretching east 
and west to the Alang and Tosu lakes. The valley along the 
northern flank of this range, which I have called after my wife, is 
known as the Ts'o-do lung, " the valley of the two lakes," and 
is a broad one for this country, averaging a half mile in width. 

At Kawa obo, where the two rivers meet, the YOgore is 
perfectly clear, while the water coming from the Alang nor is of a 
reddish brown color, derived, as I found out in '89, from the 
stream flowing through beds of clay brought down from the 
mountains along the south side of the valley. 

April 12. — We reached the western extremity of the Tosu nor 
by 5 p. M., after riding along the foothills on the south side of the 
valley. On the way up I killed a large female wild ass. It is the 
last one I shall ever shoot, it is butchery, too much like killing a 
domestic animal, and 1 see no sport in it. 

We camped on the edge of the lake which forms at its western 
extremity a little bay separated from the body of the lake by a 
strip of land projecting from the south side. This part of the lake 
is called " Head of the lake" (Ts'o-go). Thebankof the "head " 
is covered with a mass of water grass which looks like short 
brown fur in its present dried state. There was only a very little 
water free from ice on the Ts'o-go, and this was covered with 
wild fowl, geese, sheldrakes and several varieties of ducks and 
teal. The banks of the To'o-go were literally covered with bones 
of yaks which Dowe said had met their death by getting mired. 
The lake rises in the rainy season ten to fifteen feet higher than its 
present level. 

The lake, on which the ice was piled up, is apparently no where 
over two miles wide and runs nearly due east and west a distance 
of about forty miles. On either side rise low mountains of reddish 
sandstone (.?), and beyond its eastern extremity can be seen two 
pyramidal-shaped snow peaks, probably the Amnye malchin ula. 
The lake's Tibetan name of Tong-ri ts'o-nag, or "lake of a 
thousand hills," is a highly appropriate one, surrounded, as it is, 
by mountains on every side. 

When the moon rose over the lake and shed its rays on the 
waters of the Ts'o-go, the ice of the lake and the snow peaks 
around it, leaving the neighboring gorges in deep darkness and 
magnifying the height of the hills, the sight was a most beautiful 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 143 

one. This lake is the largest 1 have seen in this region, second 
only to the Koko-nor. I fancy it is of very inconsiderable depth, 
the overflow from it is very small, most of the water in the Yogore 
is supplied from springs along its course and from four or five 
affluents, the Seldum gol, Alang gol, Kokuse gol, Kado gol, etc., 
nor does this lake, in all probability, drain a very large extent 
of country to the east, receiving in all likelihood only the drainage 
from off the mountains along its shores. 

The Tosu nor is considerably lower than the Alang nor, which 
I made out in 1889 to be a little under 14,000 feet above sea level. 
A series of boiling point observations made on the bank of the 
Tosu nor gives it a mean altitude of 13,180 feet above the sea. 

The valley of the Ts'o-do lung from the Alang to east of the 
Tosu nor was less than a century ago inhabited by the Arik tribe 
of Tibetans, now living north of the Koko-nor. It is possible 
that the name of Alang, now given to the lake, is a Mongol per- 
version of the name of this tribe. The Mongol word Alang has 
an offensive meaning and was, I imagine, given the lake in later 
days by the Ts'aidam Mongols who must have had a very hard 
time of it with these truculent Panaka for neighbors. 

April IS- — I passed the day in camp taking sextant observations 
and surveying the surrounding country. I secured a lot of little 
univalve shells* from the lake and noticed two or three varieties 
of small fishes, one about five inches long and of a light brown 
color, the others with catfish-like mustachios and a flat, sheep-like 
head, but we had no means of catching any. 

I tried to shoot some wild fowl, but could not bag one. Dowe 
begged me not to fire off my gun, as it would surely cause snow 
to fall. 1 promised him 10 taels if it did, and then he was most 
anxious for me to blaze away at anything and everything for the 
rest of the day. 

Dowe told me that near Sa-chou there are wild men. They 
make their beds on reeds and feed on wild grapes, which they 
also know how to dry. They are of the size of ordinary men 
and speak a language of their own. Two were captured by 
some Mohammedan Hsi-fan, but one soon died and the other 
escaped. He, Dowe, places the home of these GSrSsun kun 

* Planorbis albus {UxWtx) 3.ni Limcza peregra (Miiller), both European species. 



144 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

between Sa-chou and the Lob nor. The persistency of these 
stories of wild men in this region is strange and highly interest- 
ing.* 

* In my previous work on Tibet {Land of the Lamas, 1 16, 150 and 256), 1 had 
occasion to refer to wild men and to some cases where bears appeared to have been 

taken for human beings by terrified travelers. A K heard of these wild 

men in the same region. " Wild people exist in some of the valleys of the northern 
range (of the Saithang). They have thick and dark skins, are well built and appar- 
ently well fed. They wear no clothes except skins; nor do they dwell in either 
tents or huts, but live in caves and glens and under the shelter of overhanging rocks. 
They are ignorant even of the use of arms in the chase, and lie in wait for their 
prey near springs of water or where salt incrustates. They are said to feed even 
upon rats, lizards, aud other small animals. They are remarkable for their swiftness 
of foot, and when pursued even a horseman cannot easily catch them. Whenever 
they see a civilized man they run away in great terror. They are said to know how 
to kindle a fire with the aid of flint. They flay the animals they kill with sharp 
edged stones. Sometimes, but very seldom, they steal goats and sheep grazing in the 

valleys. " Report 0/ Explorations * * * made in i87g-82, by A K , 50. 

In the same report he mentions meeting with a wild man, when I think he saw a 
bear. An old Mongol woman living north of Saithang " advised us to return to 
our tent before evening, because a demo (brown bear) had lately committed great 
ravages in the neighborhood. We met no bear, but the old woman's son, who 
accompanied us for some distance, pointed out to us a wild man, on an opposite 
spur about two miles off, coming towards us, but who on perceiving us turned back." 
Ibid., p. 52. 

Douglas Voxsyih, Journal Roy. Geo. Soc, XLVU, p. 6, says: "There are num- 
bers of encampments and settlements on the banks of the marshy lakes and their 
connecting channels; perhaps there are as many as a thousand houses or camps. 
These are inhabited by families who emigrated there about one hundred and sixty 
years ago. They are looked upon with contempt by true believers as only half 
Musselmans. The aborigines are described as very wild people — black men with 
long, matted hair, who shun the society of mankind and wear clothes made of the 
bark of a tree. The stuff is called " luff," and is the fiber of a plant called " toka 
chigha," which grows plentifully all over the sandy wastes bordering on the marshes 
of Lop." Wild men are said to live on the lower Tsangpo, in Tibet. The Mongol 
Lama Sherab jyats'o says that in Pemakoichhen (north of Mira Pedam) the Lh'opa 
" kill the mother of the bride in performing their marriage ceremony when they 
do not find any wild men, and eat her flesh." See Report on the Explorations 
in Sikkim, Bhutan and Tibet, from 18^6 to 1886, p. 7. 

Du Plan Carpin, Historia Mongalorum, 648 (Edit. Soc. Geog., Paris) refers to 
wild men living to the south of Omyl (or Cummyl, i. e., Urumtsi) in a great desert. 
"Sylvestres homines qui nuUo modo loquuntur, nee in cruribus habent juncturas; et 
si quando cadunt, per se surgere sine aliorum adjutorio minime possunt; sed tantam 
discretionem habent quod faciunt filtra de lana camelorum, quibus vestiuntur, et 
ponunt etiam contra ventum; et si aliqui Tartari vadunt ad eos et vulnerant eos 
sagittis, ponunt gramina in vulneribus et fortiter fugiunt ante eos." 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 145 

Dowe told me also of a mission (?) of Yingiii Menggu («V) 
now on its way to Peking with presents from the Yingiii Emperor, 
but I can make nothing of this story. 

April 14.. — We started for Shang and made good time down 
the valley. On the way I saw a big bunch of wild goats, but as 
I was riding alone a couple of miles ahead of my men and had 
only a revolver, 1 failed to get one, though I got several good 
shots at them. 

Game is very scarce in the Ts'o-do lung. When first I visited 
this valley in 1889 it was teeming with yaks, antelopes, asses and 
bears. A disease has destroyed nearly every antelope in the coun- 
try, and the yaks have also disappeared, probably driven farther 
south by the Mongols of Shang and Baron who hunt them a great 
deal, their flesh being the only meat a great part of these people 
use during the winter. 

We crossed the Yogore about two miles east of Kawa obo. 
The men in single file rode their ponies across the ice without 
accident, though it cracked ominously. As 1 started to cross 
Dowe shouted out, ''Sims chung, sims chung, P'dnbo-la!" ("Look 
out, look out, Sir!") but too late; the ice gave way under my 
horse and we both disappeared in the water, which was very deep 
and swift and about a foot or so below the lower surface of the 
ice. My baggy ch'uba and trousers held me up and 1 caught on 
to the ice, where I was able to cling, though the current threw 
my legs against the ice with such violence that I could not draw 
myself out, but the pony was swept under. I shouted to the men 
to throw themselves flat on the ice and creep out to me, which 
they did, and after much trouble got me out, none the worse for 
the ducking. For several hours we tried to break away the ice 
to get the pony and especially my saddle, also my note books and 
instruments, which were in my saddle-bag, but to no use; we 
finally decided to try it the next day, for the stream was now 
swollen by the water coming down from the snow hills. 

We again camped at Kawa obo, and I passed the rest of the 
day trying in vain to dry my sheepskin gown and leather breeches 
in the sun and over the fire, after wrapping myself in my blankets, 
as I had no other clothes with me. I am glad it was not the mule 
with my sextant and camera which was lost; on the whole 1 



146 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

think I am in luck, though my men look very gloomy over my 
misfortune. 

April 75. — We were able to find the pony which had been 
swept some distance down the river. The saddle and bridle 
were still on him and nothing was much damaged. 1 regret the 
loss of the pony, which was one of the best ones 1 had, though 
very undersized ; I will not be able to get such another in this 
country. 

We left Kawa obo by 9 a. m. and camped a little below the 
entrance to the valley leading to the Durun ula, where we found 
very good grass and dry brushwood. Though this point is only 
twenty miles from our camp of last night we halted here, as the 
horses have had little or nothing to eat for the last five days. 
Partridges are quite plentiful hereabout, and we saw a large herd 
of wild goats and some geese a little higher up the valley. It 
snowed and hailed slightly towards 2 p. M., but it was clear again 
in a short while, though violent gusts of wind blew all through 
the day and night. 

While writing in my tent after supper my two Chinese, who 
had been holding a secret consultation for some time a little away 
from the camp fire, came to me and said that, as I had Yeh Hsien- 
sheng to look after my affairs and a cook to prepare mv food, I 
did not require their services, and that they proposed leaving me 
as soon as we got back to Shang. 1 replied that I was delighted 
to have them go, that 1 was tired of them and of the continual 
wrangling and bickering they had kept up ever since leaving Lusar. 
The fact is these two men are disgusted at not being able to 
squeeze me more, and are jealous of the confidence 1 show the 
Hsien-sheng. 

I only fear that Dowe will take this desertion as another proof 
of my bad luck, and will either refuse to accompany me or use it 
as an argument to prevent others from doing so, all his professions 
of friendship notwithstanding. 

April 16. — We got back to Shang this evening after a hard ride 
of thirty-three miles, only stopping at Dowe's brother-in-law's to 
drink tea. We came down the right side of the river, a far better 
road than that we had followed in going, and one which should 
be followed when the river is not too high, though even by taking 
it one has to ford the river twice between the Kado gol and Shang, 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 147 

and four times between the former place and the Tosu nor, and any 
of these fords may be very dangerous when the current is as 
swift as it is now. 

The people at Shang, from whom I had borrowed a tent when 
I first arrived here, kindly gave up their tent to me and prepared 
me some food, as I had told my Chinese that I would not allow 
them to approach me or do anything more for me. 

The Mongols all begged me to reconsider my determination to 
have nothing more to do with my two Chinese, but I refused most 
emphatically. Dowe then declared that he could not accompany 
me as my luck was too bad and he might have some mishap befall 
him. Since his first journey with me he had lost the sight of one 
eye, and the other is now very weak. It might well be that I 
was the cause of his misfortune. All this and a great deal more 
occurred to him now, and he decided to cut loose from me. 

1 ordered my Chinese to return to me all the things I had bought 
for them before leaving Lusar, clothing, blankets, etc., and turned 
them out of the compound. Before going to sleep I sent for 
old Ma Shuang-hsi, an old Chinese trader from Shang wu chuang, 
near Hsi-ning, whom I first met here in 1889 and who is anxious 
to join his fortunes to mine as he has lost all the money he came 
here with, or rather he can collect no money or goods from his 
Mongol debtors. He agreed promptly to accompany me to Oim, 
where my other men are camped and where I will make final 
arrangements about his permanent employment. 

April 77. — My final departure from Shang was not a triumphal 
one, iiearly every one shunned me, only two or three Mongols 
(among whom Dowe was conspicuous by his absence) escorted 
me out of the village, which I left by eight o'clock, accompanied 
only by Ma Shuang-hsi. 

We traveled very slowly for the ponies and the pack mule were 
very tired and hungry, as 1 had not been able to buy forage or 
grain at Shang, and they had had no grass to eat since the day 
before yesterday. We followed a general westerly direction up a 
narrov/ valley called Hultu, in the mountains skirting the Ts'aidam 
plain, then crossing a couple of low but steep hills, we entered 
the valley of the Ara ossu which marks the boundary between 
Shang and Baron Ts'aidam. The lower course of the Ara belongs 
to the latter district, the upper to Shang. We followed up the 



148 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

Stream, which flows between tolerably high, bare and rugged 
hills to a point called Tsahan hada, or " White Stones," where the 
valley branches and where we found good grass and water. Here 
we camped for the night and, to my surprise, while we were 
eating our supper, Dowe joined us, looking rather shamefaced 
and in a very pleasant humor. He explained his absence by saying 
that he had been too tired and foot-sore to follow me, that he had 
had to walk most of the way as his pony was played out, etc., etc. 

I turned the conversation to other subjects and we talked of 
foreign religions, monks, nuns, propagation of religion and the 
comparative merits of the different faiths. Dowe, like most 
Buddhists, is very liberal. A Mongol or a Tibetan will always 
meet you on the common ground of las ox "good work," just 
as a Chinaman will on that of /z or tao. 

The night was so pleasant that we did not put up the tent, but 
piling up the luggage and saddles to windward, lay down on our 
saddle blankets and felt comfortably warm with nothing but our 
sheepskin ch'ubas over us. 

April i8. — A few miles above our camp of last night we 
climbed a steep but not very high hill on which a few junipers 
were growing, and reached the summit of the Koko k'utul or 
" Blue pass," thus called from the bluish color of the mica-schist 
on the hillsides. 

From here we descended into a narrow valley leading north- 
west and called Arachedo, down which flows a good-sized brook, 
emptying probably into an affluent of the Ike gol a few miles to 
the north. Cutting across the valley we crossed another low pass 
(Oim k'utul), and on its western slope I saw my blue tent and a 
quarter of a mile below it six or eight Mongol tents, forming the 
camp of the Dzassak of Baron and his immediate retainers. 

I felt as if I had reached home again and looked forward with 
great pleasure to a few days of rest, for 1 was weary of wrangling 
with Mongols and Chinese and wanted a little solitude. On the 
whole 1 was pleased with the success of my trip to the Tosu nor, 
where, by the way, the Mongols said I had gone this time, as well 
as in 1889, to angle for the fish of gold which lives in its water. 
The K'anpo of Shang asked Dowe (whose name is written, 1 
now learn, Rdo-pi) when we got back there from the Tosu nor, 
whether 1 had caught the fish of gold in the lake, because he sup- 



^u. 





JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 149 

posed 1 had only gone there this time for that purpose, having 
failed to catch it in 1889. 

Dowe told him that I had caught nothing, that I had not taken 
so much as a stone away from the lake. " But what did he do at 
night ? " insisted the K'anpo. " He went to sleep in his tent at an 
early hour," replied the other. "Aya!" said the lama, " what in 
the world did he go there for, if that is all he did! But where is 
he going to now ? " " He is going to the Lob nor," said Dowe. 
" That's it, 1 thought as much," petulantly exclaimed the K'anpo, 
" he has caught the fish and horse of gold of the Tosu nor, and 
now he thinks he can catch the golden frog which lives in Lake 
Lob; but he cannot, no one can catch it but my master, the Pan- 
ch'en rinpoch'e of Tashil'unpo." 

My men were surprised to see me without the two men who 
had started out with me from Shang, but when 1 had told them 
of their desertion, they evidenced no astonishment and declared 
themselves ready to follow me anywhere. I now first learnt 
from that that Ssu-shih-wu and Chi-hsiang had tried to debauch 
the Hsien-sheng and Kao-pa-erh when we were camped at 
Muri-Wahon. it was their intention to run away from me 
there, when they could have got back to their homes in a few 
days, and 1 would have been unable then as now to get back 
from them the 20 taels I had advanced to each of them before 
leaving Lusar. 

I sent the Hsien-sheng to the Dzassak's with a few presents, the 
Remington carbine and a hundred cartridges, a jack-knife, some 
sugar, dried fruit and a k'atag, to make inquiries concerning his 
health. He sent me an invitation to dine with him to-morrow, 
when I will ascertain if Dowe will come with me as guide; I fear, 
however, that he will not. The Hsien-sheng heard him telling 
the Dzassak of my recent bad luck, one pony knocked up, another 
drowned, my men abandoning me, etc., and then he had said 
that he would not go with me farther than the Taichiniir. The 
private chaplain of the chief is a lama from Tashil'unpo, and he is 
opposing tooth and nail my project of visiting Lh'asa territory. 
Time and lots of patience will possibly enable me to make some 
kind of a compromise with the chief and his counsellors, but 1 am 
terribly wearied with these vascillating, unreliable Mongols, one 
never knows exactly how one stands with them, one minute they 
appear to be your devoted friends, the next they will not even 
recognize you. Then their cowardice is so great that they will 



15° JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

hardly ever stand by you in a tight place, unless it is so hopelessly 
tight that they can only get out of it by trusting to you, when 
they become a dead weight upon your hands. 

April 19. — The Dzassak sent a white pony for me to ride on to 
his tent where 1 was to dine with him, and I was told that this 
was quite the correct thing, to send a pony of any other color 
would not have been so exquisitely polite. 

1 found him much fatter than three years ago, especially about 
the head, but he still wore the identical little black satin Chinese 
cap {inao-{ ou-erJi) he then had, but which now rests very 
unsteadily on his crown. Two lamas were seated in the tent, the 
one reading from the Kandjur, the other mumbling prayers, but 
both of them listened, notwithstanding, to all we said. The one 
reading the Kandjur was the Tibetan from Tashil'unpo; he has a 
bad face, and did not disguise his displeasure at seeing me here. 

The Dzassak has brought back from his recent journey to Lh'asa 
a lot of brass lamps, prayer-wheels and various religious imple- 
ments which now give a certain furnished look to his tent, but it 
is still a pretty poor looking place, though he may possibly have 
lots of pretty things locked up in the big boxes ranged along the 
side of the tent. 

His wife, this year no longer fearing me, came in shortly after 
my arrival with her daughter, a pretty little girl of eleven or twelve, 
and made a bad kind of doughnut — ma-hua-erh, the Chinese call 
these twisted, greasy cakes — on the top of a box, rolling out the 
dough with a not too clean crupper-stick. We drank a great deal of 
tea and ate ma-hua-erh, chuoma, chura, tarak and mutton, finishing 
off with a cup of Chinese samshu. The conversation was for the 
most part very foolish and bored me intensely, still 1 had to reply 
to all the stupid questions put to me, as for example, which is the 
best country 1 had ever visited ? Had I ever visited the country 
of people with a hole through their bodies and that of the Cyclops } 
(The Shan hatching's legends are apparently current in Mongolia.) 
Were there many treasures in the Ts'aidam.? Will next year be 
dry or wet? Who is the Pusa of my country.? etc., etc. 

Finally after two hours of this, 1 told the chief that I had come 
to the Ts'aidam for two purposes, to see him and to ask him to 
let me have a guide to the Tengri nor. 

He replied that there was no such lake, that no one in his 
country had ever heard of it, but the Tibetan lama whispered 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 151 

to him ''yd" ("there is"), and then the Dzassak said: "We 
will talk about this at our leisure some other time," and dismissed 
the matter, when 1 took my leave. 

In the afternoon the Dzassak came to my tent, poked his nose 
in everything, had me explain the sextant, the kodak, the guns, 
the artificial horizon, the thermometers to him, ate a huge quantity 
of Chinese chow 1 had got ready for him, smoked my water-pipe, 
and finally told me he would certainly do all he could for me, 
escorting me through the Taichinar himself. He would even go 
with me to Lh'asa, he added, had not a letter recently reached 
him saying the Tibetan authorities had closed the chang lam this 
year to all comers, for fear some foreigner might worm his way 
into the country. He was perfectly well aware that I knew he 
was lying, but 1 thanked him effusively, begged he would not 
take so much trouble on my account, and finally got him to leave, 
and I went to bed utterly played out. 

April 20. — The Hsien-sheng and Ma Hsuang-hsi (or Lao-han, 
as we call him,) started for Shang to-day to get the black pony, 
which had been taken ill when 1 was starting for the Tosu nor, 
and secure the services of a Taichinar Mongol who had offered to 
guide me into Tibet, or wherever I chose to go. 

The morning was lost for either rest or work, first one Mongol 
came in, then another, and finally the Dzassak, who wanted to 
look through the telescope of my sextant. He was accompanied 
by Dowe, who told me that everyone at Shang thought 1 was 
angling for the sun when they saw me looking at its image in the 
artificial horizon, and that they feared they would be plunged in 
darkness if I caught it. 

The Dzassak prolonged his visit till near evening, and as my 
Mongol speaking Chinese had left, I had no one to help me and 
had to talk Tibetan to Dowe, who acted as interpreter for me. 
Some men with the Dzassak told me that kuldza {O vis Poll) were 
very numerous in the mountains around this place, and they 
promised to bring me one or more.* 

The Dzassak brought the Remington carbine 1 had given him 
and took some lessons in firing it, he will soon have exhausted 
the supply of cartridges I gave him and the gun will be useless. 

* I also heard that leopards were very numerous in the adjacent mountains. The 
Dzassak had killed three a few months previously. 



152 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

I told him this, but he said that the moral eflfect produced by his 
possession of such a weapon was incalculable. The Goloks, he 
told me, would never attack him when they heard that he had it, 
and he intended to let them know of it at once. 

April 21. — This has been a day of rest, no one bothered me 
with foolish questions — at least for any length of time. A young 
Halha lama, awaiting here an opportunity to go to Lh'asa, came 
into my tent for awhile, but he left me to myself and amused 
himself cutting out paper figures with a pair of scissors, showing 
wonderful expertness, making the most intricate designs, some 
of them very pretty, and all with Buddhist symbols iyajras 
especially) in them. 

The day was oppressively hot towards noon (the thermometer 
in the shade at 11.30 a. m. stood at 87° Fahrenheit), but by night- 
fall it was nearly freezing. 

Kao pa-erh, who has lived with the Eastern Mongols near 
Kuei-hua Ch'eng, has told me he had frequently witnessed their 
burials. The body is put on a frame and dragged away by a 
horse ; if it falls off, it is left to be devoured by wolves and vul- 
tures, or else it is burnt and the ashes are moulded into a little 
human figure, which is stored away in the house of the family in 
a small white cotton bag. 

In this part of Mongolia all corpses are exposed on the hillsides 
to be devoured, but strangely enough 1 have never seen any 
skeletons. The Chinese and Mongols say that vultures are able to 
eat the bones, which they first break by carrying them to a great 
height and then letting them fall. 

I passed part of the day in taking an inventory of my belong- 
ings and repacking my boxes, in each of which 1 hid some of my 
money, so that all should not be stolen if one box were broken 
open. I find that the two men who left me at Shang have stolen 
a number of things from me, brick tea, sugar, snuff, buttons, 
knives, etc. Hai Chi-hsiang 1 had suspected of crookedness for 
some time, he is a worthy son of his father, the blackmailer. 

Dowe came to camp in the evening while I was making 
some star observations. He told me his people call Ursa Major 
Dol6n Burhdn "The seven Buddhas," and Ursa Minor Altdn 
kdtasiin, or "the golden nail," the latter a better name, 1 think, 
than the one we use. He asked me for a few sheets of paper on 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 153 

which to have written the Dorje cho-pa do ( Vajrachidika sUtra), 
which he wanted to put in one of the charm boxes {gawo) he 
wears around his neck. He says this work is one of the favorite 
ones among Mongols for this purpose, for it is a most potent 
charm. 

Dowe told me also that the Tibetans test the quality of tea by 
burning some leaves on a coal and smelling the smoke. 

This camp is most inconvenient, there is absolutely no water in 
this gorge, only a few little patches of snow. All the water we 
use has to be brought from near the Ike gol nearly two miles 
away; the grass, however, is good, and it is well sheltered. 

The people here are all very anxious to get money not goods for 
everything they sell, they say they want to buy yaks {djomo) in 
the K'amba country to replace those which have died during the 
last year or so from disease — the Dzassak has lost two hundred 
head, but none died in K'amdo to the south of here. 

April 22. — About two inches of snow fell this morning between 
five and ten o'clock, but by noon, when the thermometer stood at 
52° Fahrenheit, it had nearly all melted. At 2 p. m. it began to 
snow again and continued until five, when the sky cleared. 

The Shang Mongols, and to a less extent all the Ts'aidam people, 
write charms on the jaw bones and shoulder blades of sheep and 
suspend them in long strings over their houses and tents in lieu 
of the more commonly seen lung-ta ("wind horses") used 
throughout Tibet and other parts of Mongolia. 

The living Buddha I met in this country in 1889 has "made 
his pile " here and left the country for Serkok gomba.* He camd 
here in 1887 or 1888 from near Jyakundo, a very poor man, but 
left here with several thousand sheep and other valuables, the 
gifts of the faithful — it is astounding how these Mongols will let 
themselves be fleeced by a pack of ignorant rapscallions such as 
most of these lamas are. 

* I visited this famous lamasery in 1889. See Land of the Lamas, 98. Tibetan 
authors give the name of this lamasery as Ser-k'ang gomba, " the lamasery with the 
golden house." Its official name is Gadan dam ch'os ling, and it was anciently 
known as Amdo Gomang gomba. This laUer name probably means " the Imperial 
lamasery of Amdo," — implying that it had been built with funds supplied by the 
Emperor of China. 



154 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 



April 23. — Yeh Hsien-sheng and the Lao-han got back to-day 
from Shang. They had much difficulty in getting my black pony 
back, as the man in whose charge 1 had left it first swore it was 
dead, then that he would only deliver it to me, finally that 1 had 
promised him 8 or 9 taels if it got well. My men had to appeal 
to the K'anpo, give him an ounce of silver (in lieu of a k'atag, the 
rascally lama had the impudence to say), pay 3 taels for medicine, 
and even then they had to threaten that if the pony were not 
forthcoming 1 would write to the Amban at Hsi-ning about it. 
The pony is to be here the day after to-morrow in charge of the 
Taichinar Mongol Panti who has agreed to accompany me to 
Tibet. He is to be given a horse, saddle, etc., and 6 taels a 
month as wages. 

I heard that my two deserters are in hard straits at Shang; they 
have had to sell all their belongings, down to their knives, to get 
food and see no prospect of getting back to Hsi-ning. They sent 
me word that they would come back to me with great pleasure, 
but I would not have them again on any account. 

The Dzassak left on a tournie to-day to allot to his people land 
to till this year, as no one holds land in severalty, it is all the 
property of the chief, nor may the same soil be cultivated two 
years in succession ; it is usually left fallow three or four years. 
Those of the people who till the soil pay to the Dzassak annually 
one bushel {t'ou) of barley per family, while those who are only 
herdsmen pay him about the equivalent in butter or sheep. All 
the fields are irrigated, and are in the mountains where alone the 
soil is not alkaline and the water is pure. They yield from forty 
to fifty times the seed sown. 

The crop last year was a complete failure, so it happens that 
the women are abstaining from washing themselves the whole 
year, a time honored method of averting the wrath of Heaven.* 

April 24.. — Tsul-k'rims Panti the Taichinar guide, arrived to- 
day, and I like his face, it is energetic, and to his other virtues he 
adds that of not being loquacious, but answering all questions in 
a straightforward way and then remaining silent till again spoken 

* Mongols and Tibetans hardly ever wash their clothes. Speaking of the former 
Rubruk, says: "Vestes nunquam lavant, quia dicunt quod Deus tunc irascitur, et 
quod fiant tonitrua si suspendantur ad siccanduum. Immo lavantes verberant, et 
eis auferunt." Itinerariutn, 234. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 155 

to. He has been several times to Lh'asa; when going there the 
last time he passed at Muktsi Soloma a couple of foreigners with 
Chan-t'ou servants and donkeys (evidently Carey and Dalgleish). 

After a little persuasion, having had a good feed and a long 
smoke, Panti told us his story. 

Until a few years ago he had lived on the Naichi gol, where his 
brother is a headman {Jalang), but one day his wife deserted 
him for another man of the tribe. There are no marriage 
ceremonies among this people,* and the woman is at perfect 
liberty, if she does not like her husband, to leave him and take 
another. Panti, however, felt aggrieved, he gave out that he was 
going to Lh'asa, sold his few belongings and started off, but only 
went as far as the mountains. From there he stole back in the 
night to the Naichi gol, drove off his happy rival's ponies and set out 
with them for the Alang nor, whence he proposed traveling to the 
Golok country. It was his intention to try and get a band of these 
robbers to come back with him to his native country and lay the 
whole land waste. When he had got to the Alang nor he met a 
party of yak hunters from Shang, and to them he told his tale of 
woe. They persuaded him to give up his project of revenge and 
to go with them to Shang. There he gave in his allegiance to the 
K'anpo by presenting him as tribute one of his ponies, then taking 
a half interest in a wife (such practices are common in these parts) 
and in a hovel, he settled down to the exercise of the various 
trades in which he was proficient, blacksmith, tailor and carpenter, 
and here my men found him, anxious to return once more to his 
native Taichinar and once more try his luck at marriage. 

The Dzassak has promised me a letter of introduction to the 
Dzassak of Taichinar, and Dowe is to give me the names of all the 
stages where water and grass can be found between the Ts'aidam 
and the Tengri nor;t 1 don't know that either of these documents 
will prove of any use, but I can get nothing else from them. 
Dowe, however, is excusable, his eyesight is so bad that he could 
be of no possible use to me, he is in constant pain and sits most 
of the time with his face in his hands. 

* See note under date of April 25. 

t The list of names he gave me was a mixture of names of places along the high- 
road to Nagch'uk'a, with one or two of places he had heard of near the Tengri nor. 
It was of no value whatever, so I do not reproduce it here. 



156 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

I hear that there are a number of bovs among the Ts'aidam 
Mongols with such strongly marked European features that some 
of them were recently refused permission to pass Nagch'uk'a 
when on a pilgrimage to Lh'asa, the authorities there insisting 
that they were Russians in disguise. The youngest of these 
half-breeds (?) is between six and seven years old. 

The Ts'aidam Mongols only live in the mountains during the 
winter and early spring, going down to the foot of the hills in the 
month of June or thereabouts and remaining there, mosquitoes 
notwithstanding, drinking, singing and making merry (so said my 
informant) till late in the autumn. 

April 25. — As regards marriage among these people, when a 
man and woman, after cohabiting for awhile, have decided to be 
man and wife, the parents of the girl, if pleased with the marriage, 
give her a dowry of cattle, sheep, a tent or whatever they can 
afford. As far as I can learn endogamy and exogamy are both 
allowable.* The Dzassak of Baron, whose name I should have 
said is Targya, is a poor man, he married the daughter of a wealthy 
man of Shang called Lama Wangbo, who gave his daughter as a 
dowry several hundred yaks, sheep, horses, jewelry, clothes, etc., 
and she never loses an opportunity of reminding her husband 
that the wealth of the family is all hers. She makes all the 
purchases or sales herself, and is rapidly adding to her belongings, 
an easy thing by the way as a chief has prior rights to anyone 
else in the country as regards trading, and most of his tribesmen 
are not only in debt to him but he alone can always sell them 
such things as they stand in need of or have a wild and irresistible 
longing for and of which he usually has a stock on hand. 

Most of the men 1 see here who have been to Lh'asa have brass 
army buttons on their gowns, and Panti tells me that they are 

* That marriage by purchase still exists to a certain extent among the Mongols, I 
have no doubt. Rubruk says of Mongol marriages : " De nuptiis eorum noveritis, 
quod nemo habet ibi uxorem nisi emat earn, unde aliquando sunt puelle multum 
adulte antequam nubant * * * Servant gradus consanguinitatis primum et sec- 
undum, nullum servant affrnitatis. Habent enim simul vel successive duas sorores. 
Nulla vidua nubit inter eos, hac ratione, quia credunt quod omnes qui serviunt eis in 
hac vita servient in futura, unde de vidua credunt quod semper revertetur post 
mortem ad primum maritum. Unde accidit turpis consuetudo inter eos, quod filius 
scilicet ducit aliquando omnes uxores patris sui, excepta matre. Curia enim patris et 
matris semper accidit minori filio." Itinerarium, 235. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 157 

sold there seven for a tanka (about twelve cents). The future 
traveler in these regions will be surprised to find among the 
women's ornaments a number of Hong-kong ten cent pieces, and 
some small Japanese silver coins; I, however, am responsible for 
their appearance here, 1 brought over a hundred with me and 
bought various curios and barley with them, they were in great 
demand. 

It is customary among the Ts'aidam Mongols for the males from 
the age of thirteen to thirty-three to wear their hair in a number 
of short plaits about six inches long hanging from the crown all 
around the head. At the age of thirty-three they may wear one 
long queue in Chinese fashion. This custom is not universal, 
at all events many of them wear the viril queue long before their 
thirty-third year. The women until they reach a marriageable 
age, or until married, usually wear their hair in Tibetan style 
i. e., innumerable small plaits falling around them like a cloak 
and held together at the bottom by a ribbon covered with shells 
and pieces of turquoise or coral beads. When married they wear 
their hair in two big plaits falling on either side of the face and 
covered with a broad black satin ribbon passed under the belt. 

I learn from Dowe that the Dam Sok Mongols living along the 
Lh'asa highroad north of Nag-ch'uk'a are of the same stock as the 
Ts'aidam Mongols (z. e., Eleuts). They were located in their 
present haunts by the Mongol Emperors to keep the Tibetans 
back. At that time the Ts'aidam was inhabited by Tibetan tribes 
and the present Alashan Eleuts lived in the upper Hsi-ning ho 
valley where they built a fort the ruins of which 1 saw in '89, a 
stage to the west of Gomba soba. The ruins at Nomorun hutun 
in Dsun Ts'aidam were also built at this time, and likewise to 
keep back the Tibetans.* 

* I think that my informant has got things pretty badly mixed up. Prjevaisky's 
remarks on the Dam Sok given below and Mongol history enable us to straighten 
out his story and assign an approximately correct date to not only the emigration of 
these Mongols to Tibet but also to the building of the Nomorun hutun and occupa- 
tion of the Ts'aidam by the Eleuts. The second story given in the text may be 
partly true, as is also Prjevaisky's, which runs as follows: " After the subjection of 
the Yegurs, some of the Oluith troops returned to the north, but others settled in 
Koko-nor; their descendants are the Mongol inhabitants of the present day. Some 
hundreds of them emigrated to Tibet, where their posterity has multiplied and now 
numbers eight hundred Yurtas divided into eight koshungs (banners). They live six 
days' journey to the southwest {sic) of the village of Napchu, where they cultivate 



158 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

Another Mongol told me a more credible story. He said that 
when in 1779 the Panch'en rinpoch'e Paldan Yeshe passed through 
the country south of the Koko-nor on his way to Peking, a 
number of Mongols asked him to protect them from the Panaka 
Tibetans then pushing northward. He told them to go to the 
country just south of the Dang la, which forms the northern border 
of Tibet. Here they went and took up their abodes in the country 
they still occupy and in which they are under the jurisdiction of 
Tashil'unpo, not of Lh'asa as might be supposed from their living 
in a region ruled over by that country, but the sovereignty over 
the Dam Sok was ceded by the Lh'asa government to that of the 
Panch'en rinpoch'e. The Dam Sok have eight Debas or chiefs, 
and the Mongol language is still spoken by the old men of the 
tribe; in dress and manners they are now thoroughly Tibetan. 

It snowed to-day from 7.30 a. m. to 2 p. m. and between four 
and five inches of snow fell. There was a light east breeze blow- 
ing, which usually accompanies snow, though on one or two 
occasions a snowfall has been preceded by a rather strong 
westerly wind. 

April 26. — The Dzassak paid me another terribly long visit 
to-day. He said he could not write to the chief of the Taishinar, 
but he commissioned Dowe, who is to accompany me as far as 
the latter chiefs home, to tell him that I was a very good man, a 
friend of his and that he would be doing him a personal favor 
if he gave me guides, supplies, and such pack animals as I 
required. Of course all this means nothing at all, the message 
will never be delivered, and Dowe at the last moment will back 
out of accompanying me. 

The Dzassak, who was in an amiable frame of mind, brought 
about by the gifts 1 had presented him in fulfillment of a promise 

the soil and bear the name of Damsuk Mongols, after the little river on whose banks 
they are settled." Prjevalsky, Mongolia, i, 152. 

Two explanations may account for the presence of the Dam Sok Mongols in the 
locality they now occupy, either they are a remnant of Latsan ban's forces with which 
he invaded Tibet in 1705, or else they belonged to Dalai Kungtaichi's Koko-nor Eleuts, 
and drifted to Nagch'u to escape the attacks of the Sungars. As to Nomorun hutun, 
I fancy it was built in 1723, when the Chinese defeated the Koko-nor Mongols who 
had revolted under Uobzang tandjin. See H. H. Howorth, History of the Mon- 
gols, 1, 522, et seq. On the Yagara, see also the present journal, under date of 
June 2nd, i8g2. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 159 

made him in '89, said all the Mongols liked me for 1 dressed and 
lived as they did, whereas the Russians who had been here had 
frightened the people with their foreign dress and arms and 
scorned their food and drink. 

The Dzassak gave me the following information concerning the 
Mongol chiefs in the jurisdiction of the Hsi-ning Amban (Hsi-hai 
Meng-ku, the Chinese call them).* There are three Wang and 
two Beile: 

Ching hai Wang, 

Muring Wang, 

Ch'ing Wang (Mahari Wang in Tibetan), 

Koko Beile, 

Erke Beile. 

Each of these five chiefs receives a yearly imperial gift, handed 
him by the Amban, of 24 yuan-pao (1,200 taels) and eight 
pieces of satin. 
Then there are two Beise: 
Korluk Beise, 
Harge Beise, 
who receive an annual present of \6 yuan-pao and eight pieces of 
satin. 

The Tolmok Kung-wang, 
Boha Kung, 
Dundura Kung, 
Bitcheren Kung.f 

receive 12 yuan-pao and six pieces of satin. Lastly there are 
thirty-two Dzassak, each of whom receives yearly 2 yuan-pao and 
four pieces of satin. 

Some of these chiefs only rule very small bands, the Bitcheren 
Kung for example, who lives on the Ta-t'ung River north of Hsi- 
ning Fu, has only four or five families under him. Under each 
chief holding his position under a commission from the Emperor, 

*The Koko-nor Tibetans call the eastern Mongols Harchimba or Mar Sok, " Low 
country Mongols;" the western Mongols they call Yar Sok or " Upper country 
Mongols." According to my informant there are forty-three chiefs among the Koko- 
nor Mongols. Timkowski, op. cit., Ill, 272, says there are twenty-nine, three 
Wangs, (iun vang), two Beile, two Beise, four Kung and eighteen Taichi. 

t Bitcheren means "little." 



i6o JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

is a Tosalakji who receives his from the Hsi-ning Amban. 
Under this latter officer are Hosho-dzangS, Merin, Jdlang and 
Sumen-dzangi appointed by the head of the tribe {hosho), who 
also gives them official buttons of rank.* 

April 2j. — There is quite a difference in the Mongol spoken 
here in Baron and that of Shang, not only in the pronunciation, 
but also in the vocabulary. Then there are tabooed words. 
Thus in Baron Ts'aidam, salt is called hsiu, not ddbesu, because 
the latter word entered into the name of the grandfather of the 
present chief A number of similar cases have been mentioned 
to me.f 

I paid my last visit to the Dzassak to-day; he has proved him- 
self a great bore and a terrible beggar, and, considering that I 
have got absolutely nothing out of him, he has made a pretty 
good thing out of my visit. The lama who is reading for his 
benefit the one hundred and eight big volumes of the Kandjur, 
which it takes him about a year to drone through, told me that 
he got for the job, besides board and lodging, ten ounces of silver 
and a piece of pulo of about 5 taels value. 

The Dzassak told me that he had heard that some robbers had 
some time ago stolen a horse from my K'amba friend Nyam-ts'o 
Purdung. The old chief took the revolver I had given him in '89 
and, accompanied by two of his sons, followed them up, wounded 
two of them and got his pony back. Since then his thieving 
neighbors, the Golok, had been so filled with dread of him that 
they had left him in perfect peace, for, they said, the foreign gun 
he had got from the pyh'ng can kill a hundred men at a shot. 

*The sons of chiefs {i. e., Wang, Kung, Beile, Dzassak, etc.) bear the courtesy 
title of Taichi in the Ts'aidam. 

t Tibetan words are of frequent occurrence in Ts'aidam Mongol, for example : nta 
lung, "ear ring;" shugu, " paper;" rgj/a-tna, "scales;" naisa, "ink;" sum, 
"coTzl;" chyuiso-k'orlo, "watch;" kaiyu, "porcelain cnp;" largya, "sealing 
W2i\;" karma, "star;" titse, "seal." Tabooed words are common in Chinese. 
Besides the tabooing of characters occurring in the names of emperors, the people 
refrain from using many words because certain others with the same sound have 
unlucky meanings. Thus in western Ssu-ch'uan soldiers and boatmen do not use 
the word kai, "to boil," but say instead chang. Boatmen will not use the word 
tao, " to arrive," but lung, for another word pronounced iao, means "to upset." 
Instead of saying tao ch'a, " pour out tea," they say yao cA'a or chun ch'a, etc. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. i6i 

The Panaka Tibetans call Shang, Gongma Ts'aidam or " Upper 
Ts'aidam ;" Baron and Dsun they call "Middle (Barma) Ts'aidam," 
and Taichiniir is Shuoma (or Lower) Ts'aidam. Formerly the 
country to the west of the Taichiniir, and called Karsa,* was 
inhabited, but now it is a desert only visited occasionally by gold 
diggers from the Chan-t'ou country (llchi probably). 

In conversation to-day with the Hsien-sheng he told me that 
the Hsieh-chia used formerly to give the Mongol or Tibetan chiefs 
presents to secure the privilege of transacting their business at 
Tankar, Hsi-ning or elsewhere. At the present time they have 
to get a license from the Amban and of course are still obliged to 
buy the good will of the people with whom they wish to trade. 
Their profits are, as 1 was told at Kuei-te, greatly curtailed and 
they barely make a living, f 

April 28. — The Dzassak has promised to have camels here early 
to-morrow to take my things as far as Tengelik. He says he will 
not accept any pay for the use of them, that he puts them at my 
disposal. I am heartily tired of Oim and the Dzassak, and 
delighted to get away, even if it is to go down to the swamp of 
the Ts'aidam. 

I have noted somewhere J that Chinese traders make use of 
certain terms only known to themselves to express numerals. 
These terms (^C2\\tdi yen-tzit in western China and t'iao ka-erh at 
Peking) vary in each locality and even in each branch of trade, 
horse traders, inn keepers, flour dealers, each trade has its own. 
Curiously enough Hsi-ning Fu and Ta-chien-lu (Ssu-ch'uan) have 
the %2C[nt yen-tzu in general use; they are as follows: — 

I. Ch'ien-tzu-erh. 



Ch'ou tzu-erh. 
Ts'ang tzu-erh. 
Su tzO-erh. 
Nien tzu-erh. 
Nao tzii-erh. 
Tiao tzu-erh. 
K'ou tzu-erh. 



* Prjevalsky, Carey, and apparently Bonvalot, visited this section of the Taichinar, 
which the first named traveler calls Cast or Gass. 
t Conf. p. 93. 
X See p. 15 and 64. 



i62 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 



9- 


Sao tzu-erh. 


lO. 


Ch'ien tzu-erh. 


II. 


Ch'ien tzu ch'ien. 


12. 


Ch'ien ch'ou. 


15- 


Ch'ien pao. 


20. 


Ch'ou ch'ien. 


25- 


Ch'ou pao. 


55- 


Nien tzu nien, etc., etc 



April 2g. — We broke up camp early, though the Dzassak only 
sent two miserable she-camels instead of the four he had promised 
me. I gave Dowe, who brought them, a good scolding and told 
him what 1 thought of his chief whom I had treated like a gentleman 
and who acknowledged my kindness by this shabby trick. 1 left 
all my traps on the ground for him to get to the village of Baron 
as best and when he could. 

About three miles below our camp we entered the valley of the 
Ike (or Eke " Big") gol, which is a little broader in this part than 
the Oim valley and susceptible in spots of being cultivated. The 
mountains on either side of the stream (which is eight or ten yards 
wide and about three feet deep), are of coarse, bluish granite, 
those on the west side from eight hundred to a thousand feet high 
and rising precipitously; those on the east side sloping more 
gently and not so high. The valley led north-northwest for 
about eight miles, and we passed some twenty-five tents in this 
distance. Then we came to its mouth and the broad Ts'aidam 
("salt marsh") lay before us. The plain was covered for miles 
beyond the foot of the mountains with a thick bed oi dibris, sand 
and gravel, the low ranges of hills bordering it to the north 
vaguely discernible through the mist which nearly always hangs 
over this forlorn country. 

Leaving the Ike gol, which must find its way into the Bayan 
gol or one of its affluents (possibly the Tsahan gol) somewhere 
to the east of the village of Baron, we took a northwest direction 
across the plain, cut here and there by low sand hillocks, and for 
the last five or six miles before reaching the village, covered with 
brush, willow {ska-liu) and white briar {pai-izu).* 

*Suhai in Mongol. Prjevalsky says that this "white briar" is the Kalidiutn 
gracile. He also calls the coarse bunch grass growing here and in the Gobi the 
Lasiagrostis splendens. See also under date of May 4th. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 163 

1 found the villas^e a little larger than in '89, but quite as miserable 
looking, many of the hovels had caved in on the soft, spongy soil, 
and huge pools of reddish iridescent water now marked the spots 
where they had stood. The houses, however, are of little use to 
the Mongols, who only use them as store-houses, living them- 
selves in tents in the courtyards. Some twenty families are living 
here now, many of them were comparatively well off when I 
first visited this country and then lived in the mountains, since 
then they have lost all their cattle and sheep and have had to come 
to this miserable place. 

The grass is long and fine around here this year, had I known 
it sooner I would have come here directly from Shang and saved 
myself a lot of trouble and all the things I have given away to the 
chief. Dowe promised to be here to-morrow with my luggage, 
but I doubt if he is. On Prjevalsky's map, this village is called 
Khyrma Baron Dzassak. I take the word Khyrma to be a poor 
transcription of the word kirim "village." It is more usually 
called Baron* kure {kur^ also meaning village), or Baron Baishing, 
the latter word meaning ' ' house. " The Tibetans call such villages 
k'a?i^sar, Baron k'angsar, Dsun k'angsar, etc. 

April JO. — There is a good silversmith here and I availed myself 
of his presence to have him do a little work for me, solely that I 
might see how he proceeded. He told me that when he was a 
boy a Tibetan silversmith had come to the Ts'aidam for awhile 
and that he blew his bellows and watched him work, this was all 
the teaching he had ever had. The style of his work is purely 
Tibetan, and very good considering the clumsiness of his tools. 
He uses a goat skin bellows, the top with two flat sticks sewed 
to it with rings in which to pass the thumb and fore-finger. With 
the right hand he opens and shuts the bag, and by pressing it down 
expels the air through an iron nozzle, covered with clay, its mouth 
in a little fireplace about four inches broad. This fireplace is also 
surrounded, except on the side nearest the smith, by a little clay 
wall about three inches high. The fuel is charcoal made from the 
dead willow stumps found near the village. The smith uses a 
small anvil made in the shape of a cube and resting on a piece of 
wood, and he has a very small crucible in which to melt the sil- 

* Baron in eastern Mongol is pronounced baragon ; it means " south," literally, 
"right side." 






1 64 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

ver. The silver having been melted into a button (whatever object 
he is making the process is the same), is beaten out into a thin 
plate, cut into pieces of the desired shape which are then soldered 
together, borax and a blowpipe being used in this last operation. 
The ornamentation consists in pearlwork and in twisted or pearled 
wire;* to make the latter the silver is cut into thin strips, then 
passed through a bit of iron pierced with holes of various sizes 
till it has the desired dimension, after which a little iron instrument 
is used to cut it slightly and to shape it like a string of very small 
silver beads. These wires are afterwards soldered on the plain 
silver work. I saw this man make a ring and I bought from him 
several other articles, and was shown a number of handsomely 
finished charm boxes, all made in this primitive fashion. 

I heard that in Baron Ts'aidam, there are about one hundred 
Akas (gelong, getsul and genyen,t but mostly of the last category, 
which does not here preclude marriage). This shows the very 
large proportion of those who embrace a religious life, for the 
whole population of Baron is only estimated at three hundred 
families. 

As I expected, the camels did not arrive to-day from Oim. I 
fancy it snowed heavily in the mountains yesterday, for very dense 
masses of clouds have hung over them the whole day ; down here 
in the plain, for the first time in several months the sky has been 
perfectly clear the whole day, and 1 have been able to get time 
sights both in the forenoon and afternoon. 

May I. — The Dzassak, his wife, the Tibetan lama his chaplain, 
Dowe, and the luggage arrived this afternoon and I will get off 
to-morrow. I bought some butter, tsamba, flour, etc., from the 
Dzassak who, with his wife, tried their best to cheat me in the 
quality of the goods and by using short weights and measures. 
I told him some pretty disagreeable truths, which he did not, 
however, mind in the least, he only cared "to take the cash and 
let the credit go." He asked me what could be done to prevent 
the village tumbling down and stop water oozing up from the soil; 

* Occasionally the Tibetan " barley grain " {nas dro) pattern is used by Mongol 
silversmiths. Borax, called ts'a-bla in Tibetan and peng-sha in Chinese, is found 
in Korluk Ts'aidam and exported thence to China. 

\Aka is the generic name for all lamas. Gtlong is an ordained monk, Gets'ul 
and Genyen, brothers, or monks who have only taken the minor vows. 




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JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 165 

I told him, nothing, the only thing he could do was to have a 
new village built on higher and drier ground at the foot of the 
mountains. This he declared was impossible, it would be in too 
close proximity to the Panaka and the Golok who could get within 
reach of his people before they would be aware of it, futhermore 
there was no water to be had at the foot of the mountains. I sug- 
gested digging wells, but he would not believe that water could 
be had by that means. Here the village has been since it was first 
built, forty-six years ago, and here it will remain. 

To-day again the atmosphere has been perfectly clear and I 
could see due north of here, some fifteen miles away, the end of 
a low range (possibly six hundred feet high) which runs along 
the right bank of the Bayan gol; this is the Sarlik ula or "Yak 
mountains" and near to its extremity the Shara gol (or lower 
Tsahan ossu) is said to empty into the Bayan gol. To the north- 
west we can see, probably thirty miles away, some low peaks, 
forming the eastern extremity of the Emnik ula which range forms 
the southern boundary of Korluk and separates it from Taichinar 
in that direction. 

The great southern range stands out grandly to-day, covered 
with snow down to 13,000 or 13,500 feet above sea level. The 
Burhan bota, over which runs the highroad to Lh'asa, is plainly 
discernible. I hear another explanation here of the name of this 
famous pass. The Mongols say bota is a corruption of bodi, 
"wheat." " The Buddha's wheat" is therefore the meaning of 
the name ; but 1 fancy that " Buddha's cauldron " is, as I have else- 
where noted,* the correct interpretation. There are, by the way 
in the mountains of Baron, a number of peculiarly shaped rocks to 
which the natives have given names. One is ' ' Gesar's hat, " another 
" Gesar's saddle," yet another his boot, and so on. A small ruin in 
heavy cut stone on the road to Dulan kuo a little above Dorung 
charu, and about which no one knows anything, is said to be 
Kuan gyur {bsgyur) " built by Kuan-ti " (Gesar). Everything 
odd or of unknown origin is attributed to him in these parts. 

I also learnt that the present poverty of Baron is not alone 
attributable to the drought and cattle plague, but also to the 
rapacity of the Dzassak himself. Thus when he went last year to 
Lh'asa he exacted from his people one hundred head of sheep, to 

* See Land of the Lamas, 139, note 2. 



1 66 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

eat on the way ! Sixty pack horses and six men had to accompany 
him at their own expense, so that the trip only cost the chief 
between three and four hundred taels of his own money. 

May 2. — The Dzassak gave orders that the four camels which 
he had at first said were to carry my luggage to Tengelik should 
only go as far as the frontier of Dsun, one day's march from this 
place, and he forbade the driver supplying ropes to tie the loads 
on their backs. A rather violent scene ensued. I abused him and 
Dowe roundly, and told them that they ought to be ashamed of 
themselves, I had shown the greatest generosity in all my dealings 
with them and they repaid me by acting in a contemptibly mean 
way. The result was that the driver was ordered to go with me 
to Tengelik and ropes were supplied to tie the loads on, but 1 left 
the chief and Dowe in high dudgeon and told them that I would 
tell everyone I saw of their stinginess and bad faith. 

The trail led west-northwest by west through brush, sand and 
swamp across the Ulasutai gol (" Pine tree river"), a miserable 
little rivulet, and thence over firmer and drier ground to the 
Buriisutai gol ("Tent frame {y) river"), Prjevalsky's Burgasutai 
gol, which marks the boundary between Baron and Dsun. Here 
we found grass and pools of water in the bed of the river, which, 
like most streams in these parts, flows underground at the base of 
the mountains, and we camped near the tent of a headman {MSriti) 
of Dsun. This Merin was an intelligent man of about fifty, with 
a good knowledge of local affairs and quite communicative. He 
took me for a Turkestani from Ilchi, and said that some of my 
people visited the Ts'aidam every year in the eighth moon to 
trade and that there are some Mongols inhabiting my supposed 
country. He talked a good deal of a Mohammedan town (Huei- 
huei hutun) to the west of the Lob nor, but he himself had not 
been there; 1 fancy he referred to Ho-tien. 

He told me that the population of the Ts'aidam (exclusive of 
Shang, where there are five hundred families) was a little over 
three thousand families, divided as follows: — 

Baron, ' 300 families. 

Korluk, 1,000 families. 

Dsun, 200 families. 

Erke Beile, 100 families. 

Koko, 150 families. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 167 

Wangk'a (Dulan kuo), 150 families. 

Taichinar, 1,000 families. 

Other divisions 200 families. 

Total, 3, 100 families. 

This agrees fairly well with the information given me by Dowe 
in 1889.* 

He told me furthermore that his master, the Dzassak of Dsun, 
was now reduced to poverty. About a year ago he had been 
taken ill (from what he said I fancy the disease of the Dzassak is 
dropsy), and that he had had to fee so many lamas to pray for his 
recovery that all his cattle, horses and sheep had been sold to 
satisfy their demands. The worst of it was that he was no better, 
and he could no longer get prayers said for his recovery — no 
money, no lama. 

May 3. — The trail led through bog and sands northwest by 
west for a couple of miles, when we found ourselves due south of, 
and about a mile away from, the village of Dsun kure, where live 
about as many families as in Baron kure. We did not visit the 
village but pushed on, turning a little south of west. After cross- 
ing the dry bed of the Sangen gol we rode about seventeen miles, 
and then stopped at a spot called Shudenge, where there is a little 
brackish water and some coarse grass. Southeast of this spot a 
ridge of reddish rocks project from the main chain and marks the 
entrance to the Burhan bota k'utul. This very conspicuous land- 
mark is known as Sang Amnye. 

Were it not for the strong winds of this region, which pile the 
sand up around the willow trees growing over a large belt of 
country at the base of the mountains along the southern edge of 
the Ts'aidam, these trees would appear of quite respectable size; 
as it is only their smaller upper branches project above ground. 
The natives dig the trunks out to use as fire wood and for lumber. 

The Dzassak of Baron has sent as camel driver a m.an called 
Damba, the same who guided me from Baron kure to Shang in 
1889. He is quite a wag and has a somewhat remarkable history. 
The son of a Tibetan from Ulterior Tibet (Tsang) who had come 
to Shang with a Tashil'unpo lama sent to govern that country, and 
of a Mongol mother, he was left here with the latter when his 
father returned with the lama to Tibet, By the time he was 

* See Land of the Lamas, 136-137. 



1 68 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

_ — ■- ■ t 

twenty-five he had a few head of cattle, some sheep and ponies. 
Once while camped in one of the valleys in the south of Baron 
two Goloks came and carried off all his worldly belongings. A 
few hours after their departure he came back to his tent and found 
himself a ruined man; without the loss of a minute he followed 
on the Goloks' trail, overtook them in the night while they were 
asleep, crept up to them, cut their throats and regained possession 
of his lost property. 

For this act of courage he was much praised by his people, but 
apparently his head was turned by his own audacity, for shortly 
after he himself turned brigand and, in company with another 
Baron man, pillaged all the adjacent Mongol and Panaka country. 
Unfortunately his tribe {hosho) was, as is the custom, responsible 
to the other Mongol tribes for his rapines, and so it had to pay so 
many fines for his evil doings that finally his chief {Ndyen) decided 
to have him shot. 

Two men held his arms apart while another, a few feet away, 
levelled his gun at him and slowly applied the match, but the 
powder only flashed in the pan. Again the matchlock was primed 
and again it hung fire. Three times this occurred and then the 
chief saw that Damba was not to die ; he pardoned him and having 
admonished him to lead an honest life sent him home. This 
happened ten years ago, and since then, for various acts of bravery, 
among which he mentioned with pride the killing of a large bear 
in a hand to hand fight, he has been rewarded first with a white 
button then with a blue one, and finally with the title q{ Baturha 
or "The Brave." He has never, since his reformation, been able 
to do more than earn enough to keep body and soul together, 
but his poverty weighs lightly on him, he looks on it as a just 
punishment for his having killed the two Golok. The Buddhist 
theory of rewards and punishments has its good side. 

Last night Damba amused us by singing songs in Chinese, 
Lh'asan, Panaka and Mongol styles. He took off the Chinese 
admirably and I laughed until the tears ran down my cheeks — a 
rare treat (not the tears but the laugh) ; I have not had such a one 
for the last six months. The Mongol song told of a journey to 
Lh'asa, of the difficulties of the road and the beauties of the sacred 
city. The Panaka one had endless couplets, something in the 
style of the songs in Milarapa's Lubum and his Namt'ar. "If 
you see a young man coming, riding a fine grey horse, if his 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 169 

dark blue gown is trimmed with leopard skin and on his fur hat 
is a blue button of rank, you may know him to be a young chief. 
If you see a young man coming, riding a milk white horse, if his 
gown is of yellow and he looks like a Buddha, he is a young 
lama, "and so forth usqtce ad nauseam. The last and most popular 
couplet was too bad for translation, a common thing with Tibetan 
and Chinese songs, but very unusual in Mongol ones which are 
usually quite sentimental. 

May /. — After a detour of a few miles through sand dunes, to 
take us clear of the bog and lakelets just beyond Shudenge, we 
again took a west-northwest by west direction over a bare, 
gravelly stretch, covered to our right with willows {suhai) and 
white thorns, till we reached, after about twenty-three miles, a 
spot called Shara toiha or "Yellow head." Here we found a little 
water and grass and pitched our tents. The name given this place 
is derived from a small, bare, yellow hillock near by. 

Yesterday and to-day we have had in view to the north a low 
range of mountains, running east and west and apparently about 
forty miles off. it is the Emnik ula, previously referred to, which 
bounds Dsun and Taichinar to the north and Korluk to the south. 

The climate of this Ts'aidam must have undergone wonderful 
changes within a very recent period, such huge masses of dSbris 
from the mountains to the south as we have traveled over to-day 
and on several other occasions suggest torrential rains such as, I 
am told, have never occurred within the memory of man. 

The Mongols of the Ts'aidam have a saying to the effect that a 
Chinese eats with his food three pecks of dirt a year, a Mongol 
three pounds of wool, a Hsi-fan three pounds of gravel. Never was 
a saying truer. The wool from our clothing, the dust blown by 
the winds, the hairs in the milk and butter, the grit in the meal, 
the filth in the kettles, the ashes from the fire, the dry dung our 
only fuel, all contribute to make the vile messes we have to 
swallow daily nasty beyond description, and still the day may 
come when we will long even for them, a pleasant thought in 
truth ! 

The only edible products of the Ts'aidam are two kinds of ber- 
ries which grow on species of thorns and called harmak (Chinese 
halamakti), and mori harmak, "horse harmak" (Chinese k'ou 



I70 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

chieK)-* also a root called Sodzum in Mongol, in shape like a 
turnip, and which, when roasted in the ashes, has a whitish pulp 
with yellowish fibres running through it. Its taste is insipidly 
sweet, something like a frozen potato. 

May 5. — Continuing over a gravelly soil, here and there mixed 
with loess, we came after a few miles to an old walled Chinese 
camp {ying-pan) , called by the Mongols Nomorun hutun, and 
about a mile east of the Nomorun gol; this point marks the bound- 
ary between Dsun and Taichinar. This camp was probably built by 
the Chinese in the seventeenth or eighteenth centuries, during one 
of their great expeditions into Tibet. f It is square, three hundred 
and thirteen yards to the side, the crenelated walls about sixteen 
feet high and made of sun-dried bricks, and it has gates on the 
east and west sides, and small bastions at the angles and two on 
each face. Willows and brush grow now inside the walls and a 
Tibetan recluse is the only inhabitant. The brush extends for 
many miles round about it, but the Dsun Mongols have cleared 
patches of it and till the soil, irrigation ditches bringing the water 
from the river a mile away. There were a number of Mongols 
ploughing when we passed, the plough closely resembled in 
shape the Chinese, and was drawn by a camel. 

Some eight miles west of these ruins we came to a tomb of 
some Mohammedan saint now long forgotten. Chinese Moham- 
medans call such buildings ma-tsa (t. e., mizar), but this one is 
known to Mongols as the ungerhi bdishing or "domed house." 
It is made of sun-dried bricks and in the usual style of such build- 
ings throughout the Mohammedan world. The western side of the 
dome has fallen in, but the rest of the building is in a good state 
of preservation. 1 found no inscription which could help to throw 
light on its history. The Mongols told me it was built by Tur- 
kestani people — a safe guess at all events. 

Eight miles west of the ma-tsa, nearly all the way through 
willow brush, we came to the Tengelik swamps, scattered around 

* There are three varieties of thorns : the "white briar " {pat tz'u in Chinese), 
•on which the harmak grows; the " black briar" {hei-tz'u in Chinese, chibekk in 
Mongol), and the " yellow briar" {huang-tz'u in Chinese), on which themori har- 
mak grows, I believe. Prjevalsky {Mongolia, II, 167,) gives the name of the 
"white thorn" as Nitraria schoberi ; the yellow briar is probably his Rosa 
pitnpinellifolia. See also p. 33, where its Eastern Mongol name is given. 

t See p. 158, note. 




I 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 171 

which are ten or fifteen tents. We found very little grass, except 
in the most swampy parts, where our ponies could not go, but 
swarms of fine big mosquitoes were everywhere. The day was 
very hot, the thermometer at 2 p. m. stood at 72.4° Fahrenheit in 
the shade; after dark, however, my sheepskin gown was not too 
warm. 

The camels from Baron leave me here, but Damba went before 
dark to one of the tents and brought two men back with him, 
who agreed to carry my luggage to Golmot or the Naichi gol for 
eight mace of silver for each pack animal. We will rest here to- 
morrow and then travel westward as fast as we can, reaching the 
Naichi gol in five days. * 

May 6. — I learnt from Panti, who, as I have previously said, is 
a Taichinar Mongol, that west of the Taichiniir proper are the two 
districts of Kangsa and Kas (Prjevalsky's Gast or Gass) belonging 
to it, but now uninhabited.* Until about fifteen years ago it was 
occupied by Mongols, but Huei-huei from the north raided them 
and so it was abandoned. The Kas nor (probably Prjevalsky's 
Chong Kum kul) is as large as the Tosu nor, but when saying this 
Panti naturally included in his estimate of its superficies all the 
swamps near the Kas nor; in like manner he divided all the 
central morass of the Ts'aidam into two large lakes, the Golmot 
nor or western lake and the Tengelik nor or eastern lake. 

My men have been trading to-day with the Tengelik people, 
and 1 saw Panti sell one man a string of dried rhubarb root. 
The Mongols use this root as a dye to color yellow the hats, 
boots, coats, etc., of lamas. They do not know of its medicinal 
properties, though the Chinese do. 

The Taichinar Mongols have quite a reputation in these parts 
as witches. When they want to bewitch a person, they first 
ascertain very exactly his name, age, etc., and having procured a 
hair from his head or a nail paring, or such like thing, they make 
a little image of a man or woman, as the case may be, and in it 
they put the hair. Then when certain magic formulas and other 
hocus pocus have been recited, it suffices to prick the image in a 
certain part to occasion violent pains in the same part of the body 
of the chosen victim, or even to make it die. 

*See Prjevalsky, Mongolia, II, 168). He calls the Taichinar Taiji. Baron he 
calls Burun. 



172 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

Crimes among the Ts'aidam Mongols are punished with fines 
paid to the Noyen or Chief, the injured person or his fomily. This is 
also the custom of Tibet. Murder is punished by the imposition of 
a fine which the whole hosho of the criminal has to pay to the Chief 
of the victim and his family. To kill a lama is a much greater crime 
than to kill a layman. In the case of the victim being a lama, as 
much as one horse for each family is frequently demanded of the 
hosho of the murderer for the gomba of the murdered lama. 

May 7. — We left at seven o'clock with four pack horses, three 
oxen and a camel carrying our luggage, so that my own mules 
travel with empty pack saddles. It is very hard on them any way 
wading through this awful bog, with hardly any grass to eat and 
only a few handfuls of barley daily. 

We traveled a little over thirteen miles in a west-northwest by 
west direction till we came to Bolang on the edge of the great 
central morass, where we found a little brackish water and grass. 
Mongols do not camp usually at this spot for fear of wolves, 
which are very numerous and fierce hereabout. I bought at 
Tengelik some ox-hide water jars, each holds about ten gallons. 
The Taichiniir Mongols make them as follows : Cutting two pieces 
of hide into the desired shape, they sew them together so that 
the jar has a short neck and small mouth. Then they fill the soft 
hide with wet clay and let it dry thoroughly, after which the clay 
is broken up and taken out and the jar retains the shape given it, 
so long as the outside of the skin is kept dry. 

1 bought also six pecks of harmak berries, they taste like poor 
wortleberries, but are not so very bad when cooked with rice, 
and they help eke out our little supply of food. Things are very 
expensive in this part of the Ts'aidam, a brick of tea {ta ch'a), 
costing 40 tael cents at Lusar, is exchangeable here for 4 ewes; a 
pair of boots, worth 300 to 400 cash, is the price of a fat wether. 

One of the two men driving the pack animals is called Rna 
(a Tibetan name, by the way), he is a great talker and singer. He 
told me this evening that last year the Chamri Panaka of Chamri 
Solo raided Korluk Beise, but were defeated by the Beise, who 
killed four of them and took two prisoners. The Beise took the 
heads of the slain and his prisoners to Hsi-ning and requested the 
Amban to punish the latter. One was put to death and the other 
was ransomed by the Chamri, and so the affair was apparently 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 173 

settled. The poor Mongols, however, were not to enjoy their 
victory, the Chamri closed the road to Hsi-ning on them, and, so 
as not to have to travel there by the roundabout way of Sa-chou, 
Kan-chou and Liang-chou, they had to pay them 2 yuan pao of 
silver, one hundred head of horses and one hundred pieces of 
pulo. 

Rna told me also that he met Carey when he came to Tengelik 
in 1886 to buy barley. He said he had ten Turki men, thirteen 
Hi horses and sixty donkeys. He (Carey) gave him a yuan-pao 
to purchase barley for him, and, though he could only make him- 
self understood by signs (one of his Turki men spoke Mongol, 
however), he was very kind and considerate and much liked by 
everyone, but the other foreigner (Dalgleish .?) was very cross. 

May 8. — The trail to-day led most of the way through scrub 
willows embedded in loess and sand, and occasionally over 
gravelly soil absolutely devoid of vegetation. At Tagur (sixteen 
miles from Bolang) we crossed some fields in process of irrigation, 
and filled our jars with water, fearing we might not find any farther 
on. Panti said the water at Tagur comes from the Uneren gol 
which flows from the Kuo-shili range to the south, but I did not 
notice a river bed broader than a gutter, and it is probable that 
this river flows under ground except when tapped. 

At Toli eken {^6ken means "upper"), where we camped, there 
was a little coarse dry grass and the usual scrub willows, but hardly 
any water. As far as my experience goes Shang is the garden 
spot of this region and Baron next to it in fertility. 

May p. — We traveled about twelve miles to-day, most of the 
way along the north side of a line of sand dunes and amidst willow 
brush. When about half way we passed some three miles to the 
south of a pool, or lakelet, called Ike tale nameha, "Big sea 
springs {?)." We camped at Tsahan kol or "White leg," where 
we found fairly good water and grass. There were a few tents 
near Tsahan kol, and the inhabitants warned us to look out for 
wolves which are very numerous. 

May 10. — The trail led through mud and over shaking bog 
where willows and thorn bushes grow and where mosquitoes are 
enormous and ferocious. The muddy ground was covered with 
a white crust of salt, a quarter of an inch thick, under it was 



174 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 



liquid mud in which the horses sank to their bellies. We saw in 
this swamp a few orange legged snipe and pheasants, and stranger 
still, a few tents, the latter at a place called Tugeta, a couple of 
miles beyond Tsahan kol. What can ever have induced human 
beings to have chosen such a place to even stop in for a day, is 
beyond conception; it makes one believe that they actually like 
such surroundings. A few eastern Mongols bound for Lh'asa 
were also camped here, waiting for the passage through the 
Ts'aidam of the big caravan from Tankar to Tibet. 

The Tugeta gol, which we crossed some eight miles from 
Tsahan kol, is a good sized stream, about six inches deep and ten 
feet broad ; beyond it we replunged into the swamp till we reached 
a little bit of raised ground, comparatively dry, and where we found 
a spring of pure water. This spot is called Tola, and here we 
camped. 

The guide's plan is to go to a point on the Naichi gol about a 
day's ride south of the village of Golmot, which 1 have no desire 
to see, especially as it is said to be only about a fourth of the size 
of Baron kure; this would give it about five houses. From Tola 
the village of Golmot (this name means something like "many 
rivers" ) bears northwest. 

We saw a few sheldrakes, but, though I would like to have shot 
one as a specimen, my Mongols begged me not to. 

May II. — Through the same swamps and then over a sandy 
plain, with thorns and a few bunches of coarse grass growing 
here and there on it, we traveled for over nineteen miles, till we 
came to the banks of the Naichi gol.* On the way we crossed 
two little streams, the Tumta Tola gol and the Huito Tola gol, the 
former quite a stream with a good current, the latter a mere ditch. 
The Naichi (Naichiyin or Kurban Naichi) gol is a large stream 
flowing between banks about twenty feet high and divided into 
numerous channels, good-sized willows and dense brush growing 
on the islets. The river bottom is about three hundred yards 
wide. 1 learnt that there is another and more important branch 

*A K , coming from the absolutely bare region which extends from near 

Lh'asa to the Ts'aidam, was so struck by the brush growing around Golmo that he 
spoke of it as " a densely wooded forest, six miles broad and about one hundred 
miles long. The forest trees, named by the Mongolians humbu, hartno and chhak, 

are about six or seven feet high." Report on Explorations of A K , 

made in iSj^-Sz, 44. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 175 

of the river about six miles west of here, so at least Panti says, 
but it may well be that it is quite another river, Mongols are not 
very particular about such matters. 

There are a few tents near the place at which we have camped, 
but they look very miserable, and I hear that the people here- 
about are very poor. Last year in the eighth moon eighteen 
Goloks suddenly made their appearance here, having come from 
the upper Naichi valley, and in a few hours they rounded up be- 
tween fifty and sixty horses, one hundred head of cattle and some 
five thousand or six thousand sheep, which they drove back to 
the mountains. The Mongols followed them for a few miles in a 
half-hearted way and then came back, very glad that they had 
not seen anything of them. These Taichinar Mongols are greater 
cowards than even those of Eastern Ts'aidam, these latter are 
held to be very " big livered men " by the former. 

The plain of the Naichi gol is bare, and sheep and cattle nearly 
starve on it, while to the south in the mountains are rich and 
abundant pasturages, good water and plenty of fuel, but the fear of 
a Golok raid keeps the Mongols from venturing there, though they 
could stay there in perfect security for eight months of the year, 
for the Golok never raid the Ts'aidam but from June to October. 

The people hereabout tell me seriously that the Naichi gol flows 
to Sa chou and probably empties into the Lob nor. The Yellow 
river, Chinese geographers say, issues out of the Lob nor to 
reappear at Karma fang, passing apparently under the whole 
Ts'aidam.* 

To-morrow 1 will send Panti and Yeh Hsien-sheng to see 
Samtan Jalang, Panti's elder brother, who, besides being one of 
the headmen (^Jalang') of this district, is a professional guide for 
parties going to Tibet. Panti thinks that if I can secure his 
services 1 will be able to go wherever I want in Tibet. He lives 
on the west branch of the Naichi gol, where there are a great 
many more tents than here. 

May 12. — Yeh Hsien-sheng went to Samtan Jalang's but found 
he had gone to sow his barley patch in the mountains. A man 
was sent after him, and it was said that the Jalang would be at 
my camp in two days. The Hsien-sheng got back to camp a little 
after noon, but Panti, who had gone with him, stayed behind to see 
his people. 

* Conf. remark about Yellow River at Pao-t'u, p. 26, 



176 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

It was very warm to-day, at 11 a. m. the thermometer in my 
tent stood at 101° Fahrenheit. In the afternoon I was able to get 
a bath in the river, and two of my Chinese were so imprudent as 
to do the same thing. I won't say when I got my last one, but it 
was considerably more than two months ago. Shortly after one 
of the Chinese was taken with chills and cramps, this, of course, 
will confirm the fellow in the belief that a man is a fool who 
washes himself, and he, for one, will never do such a thing again. 

The people living round about here have been offering to sell 
me barley, butter (of sheep's milk), chura* and such odds and ends 
as they think may please me. I found barley cheaper here than 
at Baron and Shang, fourteen pecks selling for an ounce of silver. 

I hear that at present Taichinar is badly governed ; the Dzassak 
died a while ago and left a son, a minor, to rule in his stead. 
There is no Tosalakji and the Hosho-dzange is at Hsi-ning where 
he is attached to the Amban's Ya-men, consequently the various 
headmen have it pretty much their own way. 

Physically the Taichinar Mongols differ considerably from those 
of the eastern Ts'aidam; one might suspect a certain admixture 
of foreign blood in them, Turki in all probability. They are more 
heavily built, and taller than the other Eleuts of the Ts'aidam, and 
many of them have quite heavy beards. Their features, however, 
are purely Mongol, though perhaps their noses are more prominent 
and more inclined to be aquiline than is usually seen among this 
people. The women are fatter than those farther east, but of 
about the same height. It is commonly stated that there are in 
Shang two men over six feet, two in Dsun and three in Baron. 
These are the recognized giants of this country. 

A man between thirty and forty, came to my tent to-day whose 
appearance made me for a minute hold my breath; I thought I 
had found a European in disguise, a fellow "crank," so foreign 
were his features. He had blue eyes, reddish black hair and a 
very freckled face, he was however, a native of the Taichinar. 

* Chura was already used by the Mongols when we first hear of them. " Resi- 
duum lac quod remanet post butirum, permittunt acescere quantum acrius fieri potest, 
et buUiunt illud, et coagulatur bulliendo, et coagulum illud siccant ad solem, et efificitur 
durum sicut scoria ferri, quod recondunt in saccis contra hyemen. Tempore hyemali, 
quando deficit eis (Moal) lac, ponunt illud acre coagulum, quod ipsi vocant grice 
(griut aut griut), in utre, et super infundunt aquam calidam, et concutiunt fortiter 
donee illud resolvatur in aqua, que exillo efficitur tota acetosa, et illam aquam bibunt 
loco lactis." Rubruk, Itinerariutn, 229. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 177 



The Mongols call Lh"asa Tsu, but I am not quite clear in my 
mind whether this refers to the Kingdom of Lh'asa or to the city 
of that name, though the latter is usually called Baron tola in 
Mongol. 

May 13. — Panti came back this morning and all his braggadocio 
about guiding me anywhere and fearing nothing has vanished, after 
a day's yarning with his relatives, who have told him a lot of 
nonsense about the danger to which he will expose himself by 
going to Tibet with me. To-day he is undecided whether to go 
or not, his brother, the Jalang, will be here to-morrow and then 
we can all talk the matter over together and he (Panti) will see 
whether he shall go with me. He told me that he had met at his 
brother's tent a man who had been to the Tengri nor, and who 
said that the only road from that lake led to Lh'asa and Shigatse, 
so he (Panti) believes, though 1 have persistently told every one 
who has questioned me that I did not want to go to Lh'asa, that 
I want to reach that city by this roundabout road. 

Panti told me that while in Shang, Baron and Dsun, it was 
common, if not usual, for two men, not relatives, to have one 
wife in common, all three living in the same dwelling, this practice 
did not obtain in Taichinar and Korluk.* 

May 14. — The stories 1 have heard of late concerning the 
ferocity and number of the wolves in the Ts'aidam are certainly 
true. Last night they killed and nearly devoured a horse tied to 
a tent about half a mile from here, and a few days ago they ate 
three cows belonging to an old man who has a tent less than a 
quarter of a mile from my camp. The Mongols do nothing to 
destroy these pests, in fact they appear very much afraid of them. 

Although deer and other game abound in the mountains south 
of here, it has been forbidden to kill them for the last thirty years. 
The then Dzassak heard in a dream the deer begging him to protect 
them as these mountains were their last refuge, so he issued an 
order forbidding his people killing them. 

The atmosphere to-day was very clear and I could distinguish 
to the north (Panti says five days ride from here but he is probably 
wrong) a short range of mountains with one snow covered peak 
bearing 185° (magnetic) from my camp. Panti says it is covered 

* Conf. what is said under date of May zgth. 



1 78 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

with snow all the year, and is known as the Halang ossu mengku 
or " Hotwater snow peak." If it is as far as Panti says, it is in 
Prjevalsky's Ritter range. 

The mountains to the west of the mouth of the valley of the 
Naichi gol are called Tore (" Birch tree") Kuo-shili, those to the 
east of it Talen-tak ula. A trail leading to the Alang nor crosses 
the latter range by the Hashken k'utul and passes by the Dinsin 
obo (Prjevalsky's Dynsy-obo). West of the Tore Kuo-shili the 
mountains prolonging the range bordering the Ts'aidam to the 
south are called Sosanang, and a direct trail from Hajir to the 
upper Naichi gol valley crosses this range by the Sosanang daban. 

While on the subject of local names in Taichiniir, 1 may note 
that the river called by Prjevalsky Batygantu, and by Carey 
Pataganto gol, and which empties into the great central morass 
near Hajir, is the Baternotogol or " Mosquito nest river," a most 
excellent name for a river in this country. The Horghway gol of 
the maps, in the same section of country, is the Horgon gol, 
and the Khorgoin ula, the Horgon ula. Horgon means "a point 
of rocks." In the Korluk country the Kurlyk nor of the maps is 
the Korluk nor; the Toso nor, the Tosu nor; the Chakang- 
namaga, the Tsahan nameha or "White Springs;" the Khatsapchi 
springs the Hatsapji nameha, and Chonju is Tsonju. 

Panti's brother did not turn up to-day, as 1 had hoped and 
expected he would. I am most anxious to see him, for not only 
is it important for me to secure him, but on his favorable reply to 
my request depends the decision of Panti, who is a most valuable 
man. And then the suspense in which I have now been living 
for a month is most trying. If 1 can once get into the uninhabited 
region south of here, I will make it impossible for anyone to 
desert me, until I get to the inhabited parts of Tibet at all events, 
but all these people are like children when it comes to taking a 
decision about anything, money will not always decide them. 

May 15. — Samtan Jalang made his appearance this morning. 
He is a very serious looking man of fifty-one, with an intelligent 
face, perfectly self-possessed and of good address. He is as poor 
as his brother and as anxious to make money. He speaks Tibetan 
fairly well, but preferred talking Mongol, which the Hsien-sheng 
translated for me into Chinese. He said that he was aware of 
what I desired of him, but he could only agree to go with me 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 179 

into Tibet if I first went to Hajir, showed my passport to his 
Noyen and got his consent to his accompanying me. This I, of 
course, knew was ail twaddle, but I replied quite seriously, saying 
that this long journey to Hajir was quite unnecessary, that the 
Noyen would not be able to read my Chinese passport, and that 
the Hsi-ning Amban had informed him and all the other chiefs 
of the Ts'aidam that 1 was to visit this country, and so he could 
have absolutely nothing to say about my movements. My object, 
I went on, was to reach India by the shortest possible route; that 
is to say, through Tibet. I had official business to transact in 
India and must reach that country promptly. After a good deal 
of ' ' empty talking " the jalang said that there was a road to India 
vi& the Tengri nor and Shigatse, that not only was it short (six 
weeks) and easy, but was well known to him. He said that the 
only danger for a foreigner traveling in Tibet was the more than 
likely refusal on the part of the Lh'asan authorities to let him 
travel in their country, but by taking the route he suggested this 
would be avoided, as it lay entirely without the territory under 
the rule of Lh'asa. Since the Lh'asa Amban had arranged mat- 
ters with the Yingili of India, trade was open between Shigatse 
and Darjeeling, and foreigners (he did not say of what nationality) 
were freely visiting and trading at the former place. He thought 
he could take me by this route. 

I agreed to give him 50 taels of silver if he took me to the 
Tengri nor and twenty-five more if we should reach Shigatse, also 
a like amount to his brother. I would furthermore provide them 
with ponies and supphes to come home with and a gun for their 
defense. Should they not be able to come back by the road by 
which we were about to follow, 1 further agreed to take them with 
me to India or China and send them back to the Ts'aidam by 
Kuei-hua Ch'eng and Hsi-ning Fu. 

Everything having been settled satisfactorily, I gave the Jalang a 
few presents and twenty-five taels of the promised amount, and he 
started home to settle his affairs and rejoin me on the upper Naichi 
gol, where we will stop for a few days to get the ponies and mules 
in good condition, as 1 hear the grazing is excellent there. 

May 16. — The day has been oppressively hot, the thermometer 
in my tent reaching 94° Fahrenheit. Though it has been calm, 
little whirlwinds have at frequent intervals swept across the plain, 
all coming from the west. 



i8o JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

We will have to leave our baggage behind us to be brought to 
the Naichi valley by the Jalang, as the camels on which we had 
counted are in too poor condition to do the work, and ponies will 
have to be got. The Jalang will come by the Sosanang daban, a 
shorter but rougher road than the one 1 will follow. 

I am more and more struck by the marked difference in the 
features of the eastern Mongols (Halhas) and these Taichiniir 
people. One would hardly imagine they belonged to the same 
race. While the Halhas are comparatively of small stature, light 
complexioned, and frequently with fine, regular features and no 
beard, the Taichiniir people are tall, coarse in build, dark skinned, 
deep voiced, with heavy features and bearded, and frequently with 
hair on the body and limbs, a nearly unknown peculiarity farther 
east. 

There is a young Halha lama now stopping with the Jalang 
waiting for an opportunity to go to Lh'asa. He came here to-day 
with him and asked me if 1 could not assist him. I told him that 
if he chose, he could come with me and that I would give him 
food on the way and hire a pony for him to ride, the Mongols 
hereabout being in the habit of hiring ponies for the journey to 
Lh'asa for 5 taels a head. He accepted with great glee. He will 
join me on the upper Naichi gol at the same time as the Jalang. 
His name is Zangpo, "The good one," pronounced here Sambo. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. i8i 



PART III. 

From the Naichi gol to Namru de near the 

Tengri nor. 



May 17. — We broke up camp on the Naichi gol this morning, 
leaving behind three loads of barley, flour and tsamba, to be 
brought on in a few days by the Jalang. After following up the 
river over soft sand we came, after a few miles, to the foot of the 
Talen-tak (or tagh) mountains, which have their western ex- 
tremity on the eastern side of the Naichi gol. The sand blown 
from the Ts'aidam by the prevailing winds is piled up on the foot- 
hills to a depth of several hundred feet. The mouth of the Naichi 
valley is about six miles wide and covered with granitic gravel 
and sand. The river flows at the mouth of the valley along the 
base of the Tore ula, so we were unable to make out correctly its 
course, only catching occasional glimpses of it from the top of 
some sand dune. The mountains to the west of the river are, 
as 1 have already noted, the Tore kuo-shili or Tore ula. 

Turning around the end of the Talen-tak mountains we crossed 
a little stream coming from the southeast and called the Kara-sai, 
and then rode up a side valley leading to the Kano pass.* Kano, 
I am told, means about the same thing as k'utul, i. e., "pass." 
When half way up the valley we found a little grass and some 
terribly brackish water, and, as it was nearly dark, we camped 
here. 

The mountains visible from this camp are mostly composed 
of some shining black stone (basalt, probably), covered here and 
there with loess, with numerous patches of alkaline efflorescence. 
A propos of alkali, it is perhaps worth noting that on all moun- 
tains south of the Koko-nor lake alkaline effiorescences are par- 
ticularly abundant in the highest parts of the ranges, not, as I 
would have supposed, in the bottom of the gorges or valleys. 

* Prjevalsky crossed this pass in his journey of iSyg-'So. He calls it Gone. 



l82 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

To the east of where we have camped I can see a high but 
short series of bare, jagged needles (probably of basalt) trending 
south-southeast. 

May i8. — Crossing the Kano pass about two miles above where 
we camped, we rode in a southwesterly direction for some three or 
four miles, when we reached the Naichi gol, the country every- 
where absolutely devoid of vegetation, only a mass of dibris and 
sand. The river (some sixty to seventy-five feet wide and about 
three feet deep in the middle) flowed between high vertical 
banks, disclosing alternate horizontal layers (each about a foot 
thick) of loess and gravel. 

The black, jagged peaks, noticed yesterday from our camp, 
appear from the Naichi valley to be about six miles away; from 
all the little gorges which seam their flanks, enormous masses of 
debris have been swept down into the main valley. 

After about eleven miles along the right bank of the Naichi gol 
we crossed the Shugu gol, a stream nearly as large and deep as the 
Naichi itself and coming from the east-southeast where it rises in 
the Shugan mountains, and three and one-half miles farther up 
we found a convenient point for crossing the Naichi gol, and a 
good camping ground on the river bottom along the right bank 
with plenty of green grass and willow brush. This spot is called 
Tsahan tohe (or toha), and Panti said that from this point on grass 
was abundant throughout the Naichi valley. 

There is a trail leading up the Shugu gol and to the Alang nor, 
and about two and one-half miles lower down the Naichi gol is 
another lateral valley also on the east side of the river, up which 
runs another trail leading into the basin of the Alang nor. It is by 
this latter trail that the Golok invariably come when they raid 
Taichinar. 

Prjevalsky calls the mountains to the south of the Shugu (his 
Shuga) gol and the bend of the Naichi gol by the unpronounceable 
name of Gurbu-gunznga mountains. The first part of this name 
may be Mongol, Kurban, "Three," the second has a Tibetan 
look about it, but no one 1 have questioned on the subject, and I 
have asked dozens, knew of any name, let alone this horrible one, 
for this range. 

The subject of the exaction of the Chinese T'ung-shih is one on 
which Mongols and Tibetans are always willing to talk. Panti 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 183 

told me that whenever a T'ung-shih visited Taichinar he exacted 
a sheep a day for his food and a present from each hosho of six 
ponies and six pieces of pulo. Of course any delay in complying 
with this requisition, the first part of which is made on the 
authority of an ula order, enabled the T'ung-shih to exact double 
the quantity. 

May 19. — About two and one-half miles west of our camp of 
yesterday we crossed a low col, called the Koko-tom k'utui, from 
the summit of which we could see the Naichi gol stretching west- 
ward some forty miles. To the south were visible some snow 
peaks rising behind the chain bordering the river in that direction. 
Panti said they are known as the Naichi mengku or " Naichi snow 
peaks," and that they are " the elder brother" of the Halangossu 
mengku in Korluk. They correspond in position with the western 
portion of Prjevalsky's Gurbu-gunznga Mountains, though they 
may possibly be his Mt. Subeh. 

The rock on the Koko-tom pass is sandstone, through which 
run numerous thin veins of white quartz, with nearly a vertical 
dip, so that traveling over them was extremely disagreeable, the 
quartz projecting six or eight inches above the adjacent layers of 
softer stone. 

The Naichi above the Koko-tom flows between broad, low 
banks, most of the way covered with grass, with numerous 
patches of "black thorn " (in Mongol called ch'ibekS) and scrub 
willows. 

Having crossed again to the right bank, we camped in a clump 
of ch'ibeke, and would have enjoyed the spot thoroughly had it 
not been for the heat and the mosquitoes. 

We had finished taking our tea when we saw three thin, ragged 
and bare footed men limping down the road towards us. They 
were young lamas from eastern Mongolia on their way home from 
a pilgrimage to Lh'asa and Trashil'unpo. They had left that city 
over two months ago, each one with a little tsamba, tea and butter, 
a bellows and one small earthen pot, together with a few prayer 
books purchased at Lh'asa with the money they had begged, 
carried on the k'ur-shing strapped across their shoulders. They 
had expected falling in with some well provided party on the 
way, from whom they would certainly have got additional supplies 
to help them on, but they had met no one. Then the snow was 



1 84 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

deep and they had lost their way and so, long before they reached 
the Ts'aidam country, they had exhausted their provisions. Then 
they had picked up the old bones they found along the route and 
breaking them, had boiled them and drank the greasy water. 
They had chewed up the leather soles of their boots, had eaten 
grass, and by so doing they had been able to cross the Angirtak- 
shia pass and enter the Naichi valley. Farther up the valley they 
had found a dead colt and had feasted on that as long as it lasted, 
and then slowly, and by very short stages, they had come down 
this far. Yesterday they met an old Mongol herding horses a 
few miles above this place, they had asked him for food and he 
had said he had only a few handfuls of tsamba to live on till more 
was sent him from Taichinar Ts'aidam, and "the blue sky above 
only knew " (^koko tSngri mdtichi bSnS) when that would be. But 
they had threatened to kill him if he did not give them something, 
and so he had handed over to them his little bag of tsamba, and 
they had got another meal. 

They squatted around my fire, and in no time had swallowed 
two kettles of tea, four or five pounds of mutton, a couple of 
pounds of butter and a bag of tsamba, enough to have killed any 
three men with ordinary capacities, but a Mongol's is not of that 
description. We gave them some old boots and enough food to 
take them to Golmot ; their expressions of gratitude were quite 
touching. They told us that when at Trashil'unpo it was reported 
that two foreigners were on their way there from India to settle 
details of trade with Sikkim. The people of Shigatse had not 
expressed any displeasure at the news, on the contrary they were 
glad that trade was to be developed. They further said that it 
was impossible for anyone to pass Nagchuk'a on the Hsi-ning- 
Lh'asa road without the K'anpo examining him and questioning 
him as to his antecedents, starting place, destination, occupation, 
etc., etc. 

When they had traveled to Lh'asa last year they had gone by 
way of Labrang and the Horba country. It took them three 
months to walk to Lh'asa from Labrang. 

May 20. — To-day we traveled up the valley about seventeen 
miles, going all the way over the river bottom, which is about a 
quarter of a mile broad and covered with willows, ch'ibeke and 
good grass . Saline efflorescences are abundant in the river bottom 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 185 

and on the mountain sides ; at a distance, when high up on the 
mountains the salt makes them look as if covered with deep 
snow, so thick are these deposits. Again crossing the river near 
the mouth of the Kara k'utul gol or " Black pass creek," where 
the disintegrated rock swept down from the range to the north 
rises over one hundred and fifty feet above the bed of the stream, 
we camped on a pretty little meadow at the foot of the Buhutu 
ula, a prominent peak close to the left side of the river and along 
whose eastern base flows the Kara k'utul gol. The peak on the 
eastern side of the mouth of the Kara k'utul gol gorge is called 
Takelgen ula. 

The Naichi gol from Tsahan toh'a to Buhutu is very swift, with 
a drop of about thirty feet to the mile. Along the bank on either 
side are many large springs. It may be, however, that the river 
water (which is of a grayish color) percolates through the loose 
gravelly soil to reappear beautifully clear in these spring-like 
pools, thence flowing back into the river. 

On the way up we saw the old horse-herder from whom the 
starving Mongols had taken all his food ; I filled his tsamba bag 
and gave him a few bundles of kua-mien. 

The only game I have so far seen in the valley has been a few 
partridges, met with this evening, and a small bunch of wild asses 
seen lower down the valley. 

I passed an hour this evening trying to wash the dirt out of the 
butter made of sheep's milk, and bought at our camp on the 
lower Naichi — Camembert cheese is fragrant compared to it. I 
washed and salted it, but it is still horrible, bad luck to it, for it is 
all 1 have and all I will get for months to come, and so I must get 
accustomed to it. Perhaps some day I will like it!! 

May 21. — We moved up the valley about twelve miles to 
Tator, to the west of Amtun ula and at the mouth of a lateral 
valley in the mountains on the south side of the river. This 
lateral valley is called Atak Naichi or "the lower Naichi." The 
next lateral valley above this is called Tumta (or "Middle") 
Naichi, and another yet above it, also in the southern range, is 
called Eken (or "Upper") Naichi. The road to the Naichi daban 
("pass") leads up the last named. It is on account of these 
three valleys that the upper Naichi valley has been called Kurban 
Naichi, or " the three Naichis," 



i86 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

Tator, where we camped, is the same place marked on Carey's 
map as Amthun. The valley above Buhutu is broad, in some 
places not less than a mile in width, and the grass is positively 
luxuriant. We saw on the way a bunch of at least a hundred 
wild asses, with a great many colts, all six or eight months old. 

The trail leading to the Sosanang daban starts a little to the west 
of Tator. Panti says Hajir can be reached in five days by taking 
it.* 

To the east of the mouth of the Atak Naichi valley is a high 
teton called Nyul-chan t'onbo, or "Silver peak," — to the west is 
a similar one called Ser-chan t'onbo, or the "Golden peak." 
These tetons mark the Atak Naichi very plainly. 

The river bottom at Tator is covered with a little creeping 
plant, now in bloom. The flower looks like a diminutive apple 
blossom, and it is the first flower 1 have seen on the whole jour- 
ney; Mongols call it aura kashim.\ 

A little snow fell on the surrounding hillsides, but only a few 
flakes came into the valley. The mountains to the west of the 
Amtun ula are not so bare as those lower down the valley; a 
little grass grows on their flanks, and the rocks are less exposed 
to view; but, taking them all together, they make up about as 
barren and inhospitable a picture as one can find. Even the 
loftiest peak in these mountains has nothing grand or imposing 
about it; it is simply bleak and barren, and looks much the worse 
for wear and tear after long centuries in this vile climate. 

May 22. — We moved up the valley to near the mouth of the 
Eken Naichi, where we found splendid grazing and plenty of 
ch'ibeke, which, when dry, makes excellent fuel. We will remain 
here until we make the final start for Tibet. This spot is called 
Kure bori, or "Village site," from the ruins of a former camp. 
The Mongols used to keep their flocks here and till patches of 
ground, but for the last seven or eight years there has only been 
a very few of them who have ventured to come here for fear of 
Golok raids. 

* a. Journey of Carey a7id Dalgleish, Roy. Geo. Soc. , Supplemental Papers, 
III, 42. It is there said that it is eighty miles to Golmo vid the Sosanang (Sosani) 
daban. 

■\Myricaria trostrata. Hook., f. et Thoms. 



JOURNEY THRJDUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 187 

1 saw, on the way up the valley, two bunches of kuldza, one 
of eight head, the other of five. I was able to get within good 
range of them, but was so excited that I missed them twice, and 
they ran off, crossing a high, precipitous hill, over which 1 could 
not follow them. We saw, also, the largest single herd of wild 
asses 1 have ever come across; there were between three hundred 
and four hundred head in it. On the other side of the river, just 
opposite our camp, I noticed a large bunch of orongo antelope, 
the first I have seen on this journey. 

The valley around Kure bori is over two miles broad; to our 
west we have the Umeke ula (Prjevalsky's Ymykeh), and farther 
west the Dzuha ula (Prjevalsky's Dzukha Mountains). A trail 
leads along the west side of the Dzuha to the Tsahan datan, and 
thence to Hajir; this route is followed by the Hajir people when 
going to Lh'asa by the Angirtakshia road. Due south of our camp 
we can distinguish, beyond the mountains at the head of the 
Tumta Naichi, the peaks to the east of the Angirtakshia daban; 
they are covered with snow which fell on the 20th. The Atak, 
Tumta and Eken Naichi valleys are not over seven miles long. 
Beyond the range at the head of these valleys comes the 
Angirtakshia range (Prjevalsky's Marco Polo range), distant about 
fifteen miles south of it. 

The other peaks visible from our camp, such as the Umeke, 
Dzuha (which the Mongols divide into " Big " {IkS) and " Little " 
{Baga) Dzuha), hardly merit the name of "snowpeak" {inengku), 
at least this year, for there is hardly any snow visible upon them. 
The mountains to the west of the Sosanang daban are called 
Kubche ula, as far as Kansa-Kas country. The Kubche ula 
therefore, includes Prjevalsky's Columbus range and the western 
portion of his Marco Polo range. 

There stands out on the north side of the valley, about three 
and one-half miles away, and bearing nearly due west from our 
camp, a detached rocky hillock, called Soyu lung. On this side 
of the valley, due south of it, is the mouth of the Eken Naichi, 
up which runs the road to the Naichi daban, the pass over which 
Carey and Dalgleish came in July, 1886. The Soyu lung is a 
valuable landmark. 

May 2j. — I heard that in the mountains to the northeast of this 
camp copper is found, and the natives insist that gold and silver 
are also abundant there. Samtan Jalang camped at Kure bori during 



1 88 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

the greater part of last year with his little flock of sheep and his 
few ponies; he was then the only living being in this gorgeous 
pasture land, everyone feared the Goloks too much to venture 
here. 

To-day I went down the valley as far as the Atak Naichi to see 
if I could not get a shot at the big horns {kuldza) we had seen 
when coming up the valley. We sighted eleven of them, but 
they got sight of us also when we were a mile off, and though 
we followed them for hours over the hills, we failed to come up 
with them or even see them again. While high up on the hill- 
sides, I saw the mountains in the Angirtakshia * range beyond 
the Atak Naichi, they appeared much higher and more covered 
with snow than those seen in the same range beyond the head of 
the Tumta Naichi. 

While the thermometer in the valley rises during the day to 
above 70° Fahrenheit, it falls in the night to +14° or 15°. 

May 24.. — The morning was cloudy and towards noon we 
heard the rumbling of thunder, and shortly afterwards snow 
began to fall, but only heavily high up on the mountain sides. 

At about four o'clock, Samtan Jalang, Zangpo, and a man 
leading two camels loaded with the things I had left on the lower 
Naichi gol, made their appearance. They had been five days on 
the road (crossing the Sosanang daban), but had found no grass 
before reaching the Naichi valley. 

When we had finished tea the Jalang put on a portentously 
solemn expression and said that it was reported that a dispatch 
had reached Taichiniir Dzassak vid Korluk from the Hsi-ning 
Amban, by which all the chiefs of the Ts'aidam were forbidden 
to supply guides, ponies, provisions or camels to a certain for- 
eigner with a Pekinese cook and several Hsi-ning followers, who 
was desirous of going to Tibet. The Jalang had not seen the 
dispatch, neither had anyone he knew of, but he entertained little 
doubt as to its existence, and he thought it referred to me. I 

* A K says this range is so called " on account of a grass which grows 

in abundance here, which is used in medicine and is also burnt as an incense before 

idols." Report on the Explorations of A K , made in iSjg-Sz, 42. 

This explorer, coming from Lh'asa, entered the Naichi valley by the Naichi k'utul. 
He makes the average breadth of the valley to be three miles and its length fifty. 
The valley must have been well peopled at the time he visited it (November, 1S79). 
Op. sup. cit., 43. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 189 

replied that it could not refer to me, for the Amban at Hsi- 
ning knew my name and rank and all about me, and so he 
could only refer to me by name and not as "a foreigner." 
I pulled out my passport and explained that it authorized me 
to travel in the Koko-nor and Ssu-ch'uan; how could 1 get 
from the first to the second country except by way of Tibet, 
India and the sea ? This seemed to satisfy the Jalang and the 
camel driver who had vague notions of geography, and after a 
good deal more talking and explanations the subject was dropped. 
I have an idea that the whole thing was got up by the Jalang 
to impress the camel man with his desire to comply with the 
well-known rule of the Mongols of this country, of refusing to 
assist any foreign travelers wishing to enter Tibet, and that he 
(the Jalang) was going with one duly authorized to visit that 
country by the Chinese authorities. Furthermore, he was careful 
to have me say in the hearing of the camel driver — who will 
repeat every word he has heard to everyone he sees in the 
Ts'aidam — that I was to give him (the Jalang) only 25 taels for 
the whole journey. He told me that his neighbors were very 
jealous of his good luck, that they said I had given him 600 or 700 
taels to guide me to the Tengri nor, and that this would dispel 
their suspicions. 

May 25. — Again the Jalang started the subject of the Amban's 
orders to the chiefs of the Ts'aidam, and again 1 had to talk over 
the whole subject with him and his brother, and once more every- 
thing was settled to the satisfaction of all concerned, myself only 
excepted, for my patience is worn threadbare. I wish we were 
south of the Koko-shili mountains, 1 would not mind these Mongols 
grumbling then so much, for they could not get away from me. 

The Jalang says that between the Naichi daban and the Angir- 
takshia daban there is no grass, and that both these passes are, 
moreover, steep and difficult. He suggests going a little farther 
up the valley and crossing the Sharakuiyi daban, the one over 
which the Hajir pilgrims usually travel. From the top of this pass, 
which is of very easy ascent, it is all down hill to the top of the 
Angirtakshia pass, if one follows the highroad, but if one takes 
the trail to the west of the highroad, and this is the one he 
suggests following, one enters the valley of the Ch'umar 
(Namchutu ulan muren) directly after crossing it. 



igo JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

We have fixed on the 27th for our departure, it is a peculiarly 
lucky day, being the first of the fifth moon. 

One of the Mongols went up the Eken Naichi valley to-day to 
try and kill a kuldza, but only brought back a wild ass. He 
reported that there were thousands of yaks visible on the moun- 
tain sides, a little above where he shot the hulan. We will have 
to try and shoot one soon as we have been without meat for the 
last two days. 

May 26. — We had quite an excitement to-day. Towards noon 
we saw three horsemen driving a good-sized flock of sheep and 
some ponies before them down the valley. We took them for 
Goloks, and, quickly arming, we left two of our number to watch 
the camp, and sallied forth to meet the foe, my Mongols very 
much excited. The foe turned out to be two Mongol men and a 
woman, Taichinar people, a little braver than their fellows, and 
who have been in the valley for the last three months. They said 
they would stay here for another month and then go down to the 
Ts'aidam. 

It hailed a little in the afternoon and some snow fell on the 
mountain sides. We all talked over the question of the route to 
follow on leaving here. Samtan Jalang, who is henceforth to be 
our guide, has suggested a route nearly parallel to the highroad 
via. the Angirtakshia to Nagch'uk'a, but considerably to the west 
of it. It will take us west of the Amdo ts'o-nak and the Tengri 
nor (Drolmii nam-ts'o) to Sachya djong, from which place Shig- 
atse or K'amba djong can easily be reached. It will keep us 
entirely off Lh'asa-governed territory, where opposition to for- 
eigners is to be feared. The only serious difficulty the guide fears 
is getting across the Tsang-gi tsangpo (Yaru tsangpo), where we 
will have to take the ferry or traverse a bridge, in both of which 
cases we may have to submit to embarrassing interrogatories from 
the people in charge. 

The Jalang says that it is unquestionably the fear the lamas 
entertain of foreigners propagating their religion in Tibet and thus 
taking their power and wealth away from them, the ruling and 
wealthy class, which has caused such strenuous measures to be 
adopted to exclude foreigners from the country. . 

May 27. — To-day was the first day of the fifth moon, a very 
lucky day on which to start on a journey. We broke up camp 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 191 

and moved up the valley about eight miles to a spot called Tabu 
obo, or "The five stone heaps," near the base of the Umeke, 
The valley here reaches its maximum width, nearly four miles, 
one mile of which is river bed. A little above this spot the river 
flows in great part underground. The grass is not as good here 
as lower down, and it is considerably colder, there still being a 
good deal of rotten ice on the river. Above this point there is 
no more willow or ch'ibeke. 

The Jalang says I have too much luggage for such a journey, 
but I do not think 1 can cut it down; every pound 1 have is either 
food, some indispensable camping article or an object collected. 
The food will go only too quickly, and, moreover, 1 suspect the 
Jalang of wanting to add to his own worldly goods all the things 
I might leave behind. 

The Jalang said that two days' ride due west of here, say about 
fifty miles, there is a lake called Hara nor (" Black Lake"), some 
three miles broad and about as long as from Tabu obo to the Atak 
Naichi. It is surrounded by mountains, around it grows no grass 
and its water is slightly brackish. No foreigner has visited it, and 
he suggested that we should go there. 1 had very reluctantly to 
refuse, as 1 feared tiring the horses and mules. 

Towards six o'clock snow began to fall on the hillsides, accom- 
panied by an east to southeast breeze, which here, as in Kan-su, 
usually precedes or comes with rain or snow. 1 am told that in 
the eighth and ninth moons (September-October) it blows so 
hard in the Naichi valley that it is uninhabitable, but by the tenth 
moon the winds are at an end (or have shifted). On the whole, 
very little snow falls in the valley, and it is one of the best 1 have 
seen in this region, much better certainly than the transversal 
valleys running north and south, which are colder and more 
denuded. 

The mountains along both sides of the Naichi gol are of sand- 
stone and granitic rock. 

May 28. — About eight miles above Tabu obo we left the 
Naichi valley and rapidly ascended over the hills along the 
Sharakui (or kuiyi) gol for about three and one-half miles, when 
we camped, it not being possible to cross the range and reach 
water the same day. 

The Naichi valley, to the west of where we left it, retains the 
same westerly direction as far as the eye can reach; for the first 



192 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

three miles above the mouth of the Sharakuiyi gol it is between 
two and two and one-half miles wide, after which it seems to 
contract considerably. From our camp the Dzuha ula bears north- 
west and the Umeke east-northeast, while the Sharakuiyi daban 
bears due south. Prjevalsky, on his map, has misplaced these 
mountains, putting the Umeke to the west of the Sharakui ula 
(his Sharagui), whereas the latter is in reality contiguous to the 
former on the west. 

The Sharakuiyi gol ("River of the yellow thigh bone") is a 
clear mountain rivulet tumbling down over granite boulders from 
the snow covered pass. The road up to the latter looks very 
easy. The grass around our camp is just beginning to turn green 
and the ground is covered with yellow and violet tulips (called 
ma-lien hua by the Chinese dx\6. ji-ji ser-bo and ji-ji 7ionbo by the 
Mongols),* and a very little edelweis, called in Mongol kechigena.\ 
The grass is of the same kind as that growing in the higher parts 
of Colorado and New Mexico, a short, very fine bunch grass. 

It began to snow at 2 p. m. and by seven, when it stopped, 
over four inches had fallen, just enough to make it difficult for 
the horses to graze. 

The Jalang states that people from Hsin-chiang (Chinese I 
suppose) built last year three walled camps (mk'ar') in the Lob 
nor country, nominally to protect the farmers (.?) who had gone 
there. This year they are building another camp in the Kansa- 
Kas country. The Jalang believes Chinese troops will be stationed 
in these camps and that they will soon be in the Taichinar country, 
squeezing the Mongols and behaving generally like real Goloks. 

May 29. — It snowed all last night and this morning there were 
six inches of snow on the ground. We decided to wait here for 
a day to let the snow melt a little. 

The Jalang says that fourteen years ago he went to Lh'asa over 
the road by which he is now taking me. He guided a party of 
Halha Mongols in which were a number of women and children. 
They were afraid to follow the highroad lest they should fall in 
with the Goloks. This trail is only known to a very few people 
and is used by very small parties, when they are afraid to follow 
the main road. 

* Tulipa (§. Orithyia) sp. aff. T. eduli, Baker. The Mongols call these plants 
by their Tibetan names. Ser-bo means "yellow," non-bo " blue." 
t Iris Thoroldi, Baker. 



J 





^Ui^^ 



1. Saddle (Derge); saddle pads of red leather, with gold leather ornamentation (Poyul). (U. S. 

N. M. l:n049.) 

2. Chain hobbles, wrapped with worsted. (U. S. N. M. 1G7237,) 

3. Tibetan whip (Namru dfe). (TJ. S. N. M. 131029.) 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 193 

I am assured that in the Taichinar a woman may not have 
several husbands, but it is permissible for a man to have two 
wives.* In Tibet, the Jalang says, children are usually spoken of 
as belonging to such and such a family, not as the offspring of 
such and such a father. 

My Mongols say that precious metals and also iron and copper 
have been found in the Naichi valley but they fear to even speak 
of their presence lest there be an invasion of Chinese and Chan- 
t'ou. The latter come occasionally to this valley to hunt; last 
year a party of over a hundred of them came here for that purpose. 
In hunting yaks one must never shoot at a solitary animal for, if 
it be wounded, it will surely charge the hunter. If a yak is 
wounded when he is in a little bunch of five or six head, he will 
run with the rest from the hunter. A yak bull, whose horns have 
a sweep backwards, is always dangerous. A curious custom 
observed alike by Mongols and Tibetans is to smear on the fork of 
their gun a little of the blood of any animal they may kill. 

May 30. — We got off by 7 A. M., and by a very easy ascent 
of about eight miles reached the top of the pass. The last four 
miles before reaching the summit were over blocks of granite 
and loose slate hidden in nearly a foot of soft snow ; it was very 
tiresome to pick our way over these sharp stones and we and our 
animals had many a bad fall. The hills on either side of the pass 
are entirely covered v/ith broken up granite and slate, like all high 
peaks in this region, and are bare of any vegetation. To the south 
we saw from the pass a broad undulating plain, running east and 
west with a pond here and there and bordered to the south by a 
low range of dark hills, the Koko-shili. We only descended about 
five hundred or six hundred feet over low hills of gravel and clay 
on which not a blade of grass grew but with here and there little 
moss-covered hummocks. After getting clear of the foothills 
surrounding the pass, we took a more westerly course over 
absolutely nude ground, cut occasionally by the dry bed of some 
torrent, till we reached a grassy slope on the first line of foothills 
leading up to a splendid snow-covered peak called by the Jalang 
Kuan-shong k'utur and which appears to me to be Prjevalsky's 

*Ts'aidam Mongols, when questioned on this subject, have usually denied 
that polyandry existed in their own district, but have admitted that it was common 
in all the other districts of the country. 



194 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

Mt. Kharza. This spot is known as Ch'u-wu doksai and is the 
only place so far where there was any grass; unfortunately there 
was no water, but we found enough snow in a hollow to supply 
us with a couple of jars of water, enough for our own wants. 
On this, the south side of the range, no snow, or very little at all 
events, can have fallen these last few days, as none is now visible; 
at this altitude, however, it thaws very rapidly. 

Fortunately we brought with us several bags full of argols, for 
there were none to be found anywhere about camp. In this 
country it is always well to carry a small supply of dry dung, it 
weighs but little and may often prove invaluable and save one's 
boxes or pack saddles from being used as fuel. 

On the way to-day we saw a few solitary hulan stallions, some 
orongo antelope and pronged horned antelope {huang-yang), but 
not more than twenty head in all. The whole broad valley of the 
Ch'umar is dreadfully desolate looking, it might quite appropri- 
ately be called Mar lung or "Red valley," for the whole face of 
the country is of a light brick red color. 

May 31. — We traveled to-day about eleven miles in a south- 
west direction over soft, gravelly soil, crossing six little streams 
of brackish water, the overflow of four pools a little to the right 
of our line of march. These streamlets flow into the Ch'u-mar. 

Although the country over which we traveled to-day seemed 
level, we descended about six hundred feet. We camped by a 
streamlet, near which we found a little grass. We could not 
possibly get to the south side of the valley m one day without 
tiring the animals overmuch. From this camp, which my Mon- 
gols call Ch'u-marin dsun kuba, or "North branch of the Ch'u- 
mar," we can see due south of us about three miles the Ch'umar 
River, where it forms a good-sized lakelet. 

Now and then during the day it hailed and thundered, then the 
clouds swept swiftly by and we saw all the mountains around us. 
The Kuan-shong k'utur peak I now see marks the junction of the 
range bordering the Naichi gol on the south, and the Angirtakshia 
range, although the two ranges are already in reality united at the 
Sharakuiyi daban, as is shown by our now being south of the 
Angirtakshia, after having only crossed one range between it and 
the Naichi gol. Nearly due east of our camp and apparently at 
the eastern extremity of the Angirtakshia range rises a high 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 195 

pyramidal snow peak (probably Prjevalsky's Subeh Mountain 
and the "Snowy Peak" of Carey's itinerary); my Mongols call 
it Amnye malchin mengku, a most unsatisfactory appellation, as 
there are several others bearing this name in the Panaka country. 
Our view to the west (or rather northwest by west) terminates 
at a huge snow-covered ''massif," connected with the Kuan- 
shong k'utur by comparatively low hills. This great snow peak, 
for which I can learn no name, must be Prjevalsky's Shapka 
Monamakh or his Mt. Jingri; this latter name I take to be his 
mode of transcribing Gangri or "snow peak." From where we 
have camped this snow peak appears to be distant some forty 
miles. To the south the Koko-shili daban, over which the high 
road to Lh'asa passes, trends east-southeast, and the western 
extremity of this range is, as well as I can make out, a little north 
of west, where it seems to sink to the level of the surrounding 
country. 

I have suffered yesterday and to-day very much with inflamed 
eyes, and have been glad to pass part of the day in my darkened 
tent. At night 1 took a few observations for time and latitude, 
but the strain on my eyes was very painful, and 1 could not read 
the vernier very well. The wind, the alkaline dust, the glare of 
the sun on the snow, have not only got our eyes into a fearful 
state, but the skin on our faces is cracked and bleeding. Fortun- 
ately I have a good supply of vaseline; it is much better than 
butter or mutton fet, though it softens the skin a little too much. 

This camp is on very nearly the same ground as Carey and 
Dalgleish's of the i6th July, 1886.* 

June I. — June was ushered in with the thermometer at 13° 
above zero and half an inch of snow on the ground. About three 
miles southwest of our camp of last night we came to the north 
branch of the Ch'u-mar, a miserable little streamlet, about six 
inches deep and ten feet wide, of dark red water. It flows 
here in a general east-southeast direction along the edge of a 
salt lake about a mile wide and two miles long. The salt on 
this lake forms a crust about half an inch thick and through it we 
had to break our way with considerable difficulty, as the mules 
sank repeatedly up to their bellies in the mud under it. There is 
here an inexhaustible and as yet unworked supply of fine white 

* See Jour?iey oj Carey and Dalgleish, 41. 






196 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

salt when the salt lakes farther south and now being used are 
exhausted, but that is in the far future; salt is the one thing the 
Ts'aidam and Northern Tibet are immensely rich in. A stream 
coming from a short range of hills southwest of the salt lake flows 
into it. It is larger than the Ch'u-mar itself (at this time of the 
year at all events). The Ch'u-mar comes from the west-north- 
west and has its source "a great way off," the Jalang says, prob- 
ably thirty or forty miles. 

When we finally got out of the salt lake we continued over 
soft water-soaked gravel, nearly as bad as mud. and quite as 
devoid of vegetation, in a general southerly direction, till we 
reached the dry bed of a stream (there was a little water flowing 
a foot or so under the surface) where we camped, the mules being 
terribly tired from the hard day's work. We saw on the way a 
few orongo and some gray geese, and at the spot where we 
camped there was quite a pile of orongo horns, left by Mongol 
hunters, for had they been Tibetans they would have carried the 
horns off, as they are much prized among them as tips to match- 
lock forks. 

It hailed frequently and very heavily during the day, with thunder 
and a strong west breeze. I learnt that all the country south of 
the Kuon-shong k'utur range and west of the Angirtakshia belongs 
nominally to the Karsa Tibetans now occupying the district called 
Yagara, south of the Dang la range and along the highroad to 
Nagch'uk'a. When they occupied this country the Golok did 
not venture to pass through it when raiding the Ts'aidam, and it 
is said that at the present day they pay the Karsa an annual sum 
to have the right of way through it. The present head chief of 
the Yagara Karsa is Karsa Ado, the second is Karsa Pesung-gunlo, 
the third is Karsa Tsedur. 

Jtine 2. — About five miles in a southwest direction, over gravelly 
soil, brought us to the southern and most important branch of the 
Ch'u-mar (Ch'umarin baron sala, or Namchutu ulan muren, "the 
red river of the meadow," my Mongols call it),* a rather rapid 
stream about thirty feet broad, and a foot and a half deep, flowing 
in several channels over a bed of soft sand at least a quarter of a 
mile wide. We experienced a great deal of difficulty getting 
across as the bed of the stream was full of quicksands, and we 

* Prjevalsky's Naptschitai-ulan-muren. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 197 

had to unload the mules and carry the loads across on our backs. 
The river has a general east-northeast direction, its water is of the 
same dark red color as that of the north branch. Beyond the 
river the ground rises slightly but remains of the same gravelly 
nature as to the north of it. After about six miles we came to the 
top of a sharp but short descent at the foot of which were two lake- 
lets and a few patches of grass. This is the Elesu nor or " Sand 
lake," which has an outlet into another stream emptying into the 
Ch'u-mar, probably some ten or twelve miles to the northeast. 
The water of these lakelets is quite sweet and the sand hillocks 
which surround them to the south are covered with what in this 
region is considered excellent grass. A few geese and some 
sheldrakes were swimming on the water, on which there was, 
to my surprise, no ice, and over two hundred orongo were grazing 
near by, and better than all, we found wild onions growing in 
great abundance in the sand. So pleased were we at having 
something green to put in our miserable food (we had had nothing 
of the kind for over two months), that we decided to camp here 
for a day, and our joy was complete when in the evening 1 killed 
three orongo and all hands were able to gorge themselves with 
meat. 

Panti and his brother had a row in the evening, the former 
saying that his brother was making a fool of himself by trying to 
take me by a road of which he knew nothing, instead of traveling 
by the highroad. The jalang replied that he knew what he was 
about, and would reach Shigatse by this " upper road," as he calls 
it, or "bust" (or words to that effect). I had to interpose and 
tell Panti that it was my desire to travel by this route, that the 
highroad, which had been explored by the Russians, had no charms 
for me and that I would not take it even if the Jalang wanted to 
go that way. 

June J. — The sky this morning was covered with ominously 
black clouds and a snow storm was impending. Panti went from 
one little sand hill to another reciting mantras and waving his 
rosary towards the four cardinal points, blowing lustily the while 
to drive the storm away. This ceremony the Chinese call fang 
yu. At 2 p. M. it began to snow, with accompanying thunder 
and light west-southwest breeze. It ceased at 4.30 P. M., some- 
thing over three inches of snow having fallen. Just as the storm 



igS JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

was about to break, the little lama, Zangbo, burnt some shuka 
and recited mantras, so that the horses and mules should not stray. 
He was delighted when the storm was over to find our stock all 
huddled together in a nook in the hills. Panti, on the contrary, 
looked very downcast, he said that if the Jalang had done the 
proper thing by me he would have dispelled the storm, for he was 
an expert at t'ang-yuing. Zangbo modestly remarked that while 
he could charm horses {fang ma in Chinese), he knew nothing 
about charming storms; it was a separate branch of the science, 
and little known in his country; the Ts'aidam Mongols have learnt 
how to fang yu from the K'amba. 

1 overhauled all my loads to-day to see if 1 could cut them down, 
as the mules show unmistakable signs of fatigue, and I fear they 
may not reach the journey's end, especially as we fed them the 
last grain of barley we had to-day. Henceforth they will have to 
hustle for a living. I hope they will do it as successfully as the 
dogs, who have thrived on nothing ever since we left Lusar. The 
result of my examination of the loads has been to throw away 
about one hundred and fifty pounds of stuff, all of which, under 
less trying circumstances, would have been of great value to me. 
All the discarded objects were carefully packed by Panti and his 
brother, and cached in a hole dug in the sand. They said they 
would take them on their way back to the Ts'aidam. 

When looking over one of the boxes I found four sheep's 
shoulder blades; the Jalang at once appropriated them and had a 
good time telling our fortune by the lines on them after they had 
been charred. This mode of divination is called data tUleje in 
Mongol, sokwa ar in Tibetan and shao-chien in Chinese.* Besides 
this method of divining the Mongols have also, divination by 
sheep's droppings, by twelve copper cash, by drawing (the Chi- 
nese shen chien system), by counting the threads in the fringe of 
the girdle (odd and even), and by palmistry. 

June 4. — Last night was one of the coldest I have experienced 
on this journey, the thermometer falling to -1-3° Fahrenheit. The 
wolves gave us a concert and the dogs responded lustily the 

* See Land oj the Lamas, 34, at seq. The ancient Peruvians had wizards called 
Achicoc, who told fortunes by maize and the dung of sheep, giving replies to those 
who consulted them according as the things came out in odd or even numbers. See 
Rites and Laws of the Yncas, by Clem. R. Markham {Haktuyt Soc), 14. Also 
on Tibetan modes of divination. Joum. Roy. Asiat. Soc., n. s., XXIII, 234, et seq. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 199 

whole night long, so we got but little sleep. We waited in camp 
until the sun had thawed our tents and they could be folded up, 
and got off by nine o'clock. At seven o'clock the thermometer, 
in the shade, stood at +18°, and at 7.30 it marked, in the sun, 
+66°. 

A very gentle ascent of seven miles, the latter half over grass- 
covered hummocks, brought us to the foot of the Koko-shili eken 
k'utul, or " Upper Koko-shili pass." A good-sized brook flows 
down from the pass, the hills rising not over eight hundred or 
nine hundred feet above the level of the Elesu nor. This stream 
empties into the latter lake, but when near it, it flows under the 
sand. The Koko-shili, or " Blue hills," (or, rather, "alps," for 
shili means a "grass-covered hill") is, as the name implies, a low 
range of dark-colored hills, without a single prominent peak.* 
The point at which we are crossing them appears to be very near the 
western extremity of the range, and hence this part of it, so says 
the Jalang, is known also as the tolha, or "head" of the range. 
To our west these hills seem to be lost in a maze of low hillocks, 
forming the southwestern limit of the Ch'u-mar basin. 

We camped about two miles up the pass, as the guide feared 
there would not be good grass near the summit on the other side, 
and we cannot make forced marches. We saw a great many 
antelopes {ling yang and huang yang) near the foot of the pass, and 
on the way up I noticed six yaks feeding on the side-hills. The 
ground was everywhere covered with their dung, so I fancy they 
are quite numerous in these hills.f 

June 5. — Two miles above our camp of last night we reached 
the summit of the pass, the ascent all the way being absolutely 
without difficulty. The descent was even easier than the ascent; 
the hills to their summits were covered with grass, and from the 
great quantity of yak droppings on this, as on the north side of 
the range, 1 fancy that this must be a fine place for a sportsman ; 
the innumerable little depressions between the hillocks composing 
the range give exceptional facilities for stalking. The whole 
range, from north to south, is not over ten miles wide, and the 

* Conf. Prjevalsky, Reisen am oberen Lauf des Gelben Flusses, p. 123. 

+ Prjevalsky, Op. sup. cit., 129, refers to herds of one thousand head of yak seen 
by him in this region in 1872-73. On the flora and fauna of this country, see 
Prjevalsky, Op. sup. cit., 108-113, 123-124. 



200 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

south side, along our line of march, is chiefly composed of slate 
and siliceous limestone. 

After crossing the range we took a due westerly course along 
the foothills over a yielding reddish gravel, with an occasional 
snow-covered hummock and a few grassy hollows. We had 
now the great Dungbure range in view, about thirty miles to the 
southward, trending, as well as I could see, east-southeast and 
north-northwest. This range is an imposing one, with numerous 
high peaks, not a few covered with snow far down their dark, 
steep flanks. One of these peaks, from its supposed resemblance 
to a conch shell, has given the hybrid name of Dungbure to the 
range.* In Tibetan dung is a " conch shell," and in Mongol buri 
has the same meaning. This, at least, is the explanation of the 
term given me by a number of Mongols, but 1 don't think that 
they, any more than the Tibetans, are very trustworthy etymolo- 
gists, especially as none of my informants could write, and had 
to trust implicitly to apparent similarity of sound, a dangerous 
guide in the languages of this part of the world, and, in fact, in 
any. 

Between the Koko-shili and the Dungbure are several short 
spurs of no great height, of red sandstone apparently, and all par- 
allel to the main ranges; a number of little streams flow on either 
side of these, all emptying beyond our range of vision into the 
Nam-ch'utola muren. 

We passed near a solitary yak bull, and when the dogs ran at 
him, he turned and charged not only them, but the whole party of 
us, his long shaggy coat bristling all over, and his huge bushy tail 
standing straight out behind him; it was a magnificent sight. He 
looked very vicious, and 1 did not dare to try and kill him with a 
ball from my light carbine, and I feared that if only wounded he 
might damage the mules with his long horns. So when he had 
snorted and pawed around us for awhile, we let him peaceably 
turn around and leisurely trot off. We saw a couple of wild 

* This range is possibly the Tung-p'u-lo-t'u of the Chinese. In the Wei-tsang 
t'u chih we find mention of a Tung-p'u-lo-t'u ta-pa-na (daban). Sttjoum. Roy. 

Asiat. Soc, n. s. XXIII, 92. Explorer A K says of its name, "Dung 

means a shell and bura blowing. This place is so called as it is said that when one 
of the Grand Lamas went to see the Emperor of China the gods came down to 

welcome him here and blew the shell." Report on the Explorations of A 

K , made in 1879-82, 40. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 201 

asses, two or three antelope, a great many hares, and a few small 
birds, but my surveying keeps me too busy to give much time to 
shooting while on the march. 

We camped well up on the foothills at a spot where we found 
good water and plenty of grass, and which we called Hara daban, 
"Black pass," from a low col just north of the camp. The 
Koko-shili are not here over three hundred feet high, but a few 
miles to our west they rise to perhaps six hundred feet. 

June 6. — It snowed so heavily in the night (six inches on the 
level) that we were unable to move from camp. We all turned 
out at 5 A. M. and scraped the snow off the grass so that the stock 
could get something to eat. Towards eight o'clock the Jalang 
came to my tent and after telling me that he thought it prudent for 
us to henceforth ration ourselves very closely, and that we must 
keep an eye on everyone to see that no food was purloined, he 
remarked that the continual bad weather (which was exception- 
ally bad for even this region) was keeping us back very much 
and that some means must be taken, and without any delay, to 
put a stop to it, for otherwise we should have exhausted our 
supplies long before we could get to the inhabited parts of Tibet. 
He had learned from the K'amba the way to charm storms and he 
wished to put his knowledge at my disposal. I told him that I 
trusted he would do everything in his power to assist us and that 
1 begged him to set to work at once. 

He asked for some tsamba, butter, sugar, and raisins, and then 
kneaded the tsamba into a number of miniature sea monsters 
{mSlSkS), snakes and bears, and manufactured a good supply of 
little tsamba pellets in which he mixed the sugar and raisins. He 
then burnt on a bit of dung some shuka, butter and tsamba to attract 
the attention of the gods by the perfumed fumes, and assisted by 
Zangbo, chanted certain prayers. Still chanting, the Jalang poured 
tea over some of the tsamba pellets and then went outside of the 
tent and first facing the west, then the east, then the north and 
finally the south, scattered a little of the oblation in each direction, 
calling on the gods to accept it. Then he once more turned to 
the south and then to the west and recited some mantras. 

After this he came back to the tent, and for the rest of the day 
and far into the night kept up mumbling charms, going occasion- 
ally outside to wave his prayer beads, blow lustily to dispel the 



202 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

storm clouds and burn a little shuka on an improvised altar of a 
big piece of dry dung. When any black cloud came too near us 
or a little hail fell, the Jalang's face grew sterner than usual, and 
he burnt a few of the little 7neliki, snakes and bears. 

While resting during the day the jalang told me that in this 
ceremony all the gods of the thirty-three regions of space were 
invoked, and after offerings had been made to them, they were 
told that we were on a long journey, that the snow was keeping 
us back, its whiteness blinding our eyes, and that if we were 
detained beyond measure our food supplies would give out before 
we could reach men's dwelling places. "You are all powerful, 
oh gods, be pleased to accept these offerings, the best we have to 
give, and stop the snow falling, save us from the tempest and from 
starvation! If you do so we will always give you of our best, 
but if you are deaf to our prayer, I will burn these images of 
miliki and bamburshi (bears), the like of which you show 
yourselves to be, vile, loathsome, cruel beasts!" In the evening 
there was some heavy thunder and lightning, and a little rain also 
fell, but the storm passed to the east of us, and the Jalang was 
happy. 

June 7. — The Jalang had to burn up all his little snakes and 
bears and talk pretty roughly to the gods, but he finally got them 
under control, for no snow and very little hail fell during the 
night. The medicine man was consequently very proud, and 
insisted that, had it not been for him, we would have been snow- 
bound for at least a week. He blew very vigorously at the clouds 
this morning, and after a while said we could start, that it was 
all right. 

We continued over very soft gravel, in which our horses sank 
to their knees; it was as bad as quicksand; the incessant snowing 
and raining has turned these hillsides into shaking bogs. We 
crossed three little rivulets, meeting at the foot of the hills and 
flowing southeast around one of the short red sandstone ridges in 
the main valley and parallel to its axis. We then came, after about 
nine miles, to a rather dry spot, covered with fine grass and 
abundant water, where we camped. The Jalang, who, I fear, is 
cursed with a lively imagination, said this spot was called Olon 
horgo, but whether this is true or not, it does just as well as any 
other name, and is better than such names as "Camp Washing- 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 203 

ton," " Camp Despair," or the like, in which some travelers seem 
to revel. 

We are here very near the head of what I suppose is the valley 
of the Namchutola, whose southern feeders must be vastly more 
important than any we have yet seen. Though we have apparently 
traveled over level ground, I find that we have ascended since the 
day before yesterday (camp at Hara daban) over four hundred feet, 
and our present camp is at the respectable altitude of 15,700 feet 
above sea level. We knew there must be a difference before I had 
taken any boiling point observation, for at these great altitudes one's 
breathing accurately indicates the slightest changes of elevation; 
as soon as we got settled here my men remarked that there was 
a great deal oi yen chang, their mode of expressing the difficulty 
of breathing experienced at high altitudes. 

1 found hares wonderfully plentiful around camp and killed a 
dozen in less than an hour. The Jalang and Zangbo, who are 
lama kun, would not eat them, but we, who are hara kun ( ' ' black 
men "), feasted on them, and I filled a bag with cooked pieces for 
my future delectation while on the march. 

June 8. — An inch of snow fell during the night and this morning 
the ground was softer and more trying on the animals than ever. 
After a few miles in a westerly direction, we turned southwest, 
and after crossing some steep red sandstone hills and wading 
through heavy red sand for several miles we came to the north 
branch of the Namchutola muren (or ulan muren), here about 
fifteen feet broad and a foot deep. A heavy hailstorm with a 
good deal of sharp thunder here overtook us, but was rapidly 
swept eastward, and again the sun shown brightly, but in less 
than an hour it was hailing again, and sunshine and hail alternated 
during the whole day with accompanying variations of the 
thermometer, now at 70° and a few minutes later at 45°. 

From the summit of the red sandstone range we crossed in the 
early part of the day, 1 distinguished to the north the Koko-shili 
hills stretching westward eight or ten miles, but so low that they 
hardly deserved the name of hillock; this marks apparently the 
end of that range. 

A pony went dead lame and two mules gave out and fell under 
their loads, so we had to camp near where they lay down, only 
ten miles from our camp of yesterday. I reduced the weight of 



204 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

the luggage a little by throwing away all my shot cartridges; 
every extra pound tells on the poor mules, and we are still weeks, 
possibly months away from our journey's end. 

1 saw no living creature to-day save two yak bulls; even 
sheldrakes have abandoned this region of mud and storms. 

June g. — We continued in a southwest direction along the foot 
of a sandstone mha, which here bounds the basin of the Nam- 
chutola, and camped in a hollow at its foot at a point where the 
valley takes a westerly bend. Before us to the east, in the valley 
bottom, were five little red sandstone pitons, which we called 
Tabu tolh'a or "the five heads "; these mark accurately the posi- 
tion of our camp. This little valley trends southwest, its lower 
end a few miles south of here near the left bank of the middle 
branch of the Namchutola. 

Hail, wind and mud have greatly impeded our progress; for 
the last two or three days we have been obliged to lead our ponies, 
as it is impossible to ride through the deep, soft mud. To-day 
two broken-down mules and a lame pony have added materially 
to our troubles. At the great elevation at which we have now 
been for ten days, the animalsshrivel up and lose their strength with 
wonderful rapidity. No feed, no shelter, muddy, alkaline water 
and hard work is rather trying on the best of horseflesh, and on 
such as we have, and with four months of hard work to their 
credit, it is no wonder they are utterly done up. 

The rivulets that trickle down from the hills behind our camp 
are strongly saline and dyed of a dark red color, the prevailing 
hue of this region. 

The men are in a grumpy frame of mind; their daily ration is a 
cup of tsamba and a spoonful of butter. A brick of tea (about 
eight pounds) is calculated to last the party four weeks. We have 
had no meat since eating the hares at Olon horgo. Once a day 
we eat a mess of mien and wild onions, or a little rice with har- 
mak berries, dry jujubes or chuoma. We drink, however, oceans 
of tea and smoke incessantly. I have still a little chura (dried 
cheese) left, it is, when well soaked, a great addition to plain 
tsamba. Kao pa-erh, the cook, does wonders in the way of pre- 
paring our food, he makes it quite appetizing and is making our 
supplies last very well, though he is a great eater himself, as is also 
the Lao-han; the other men say the former steals from their 
rations. 








1. Butter box (Koko nor). (D. S. N. M. 

I672U.) 
3. Butter box (Lh'asa). (U. S. N. M. 

1310G1.) 
5. Milk pail (Namni (U). (U. S. N. M. 

167226.) 



2. Butter box of bamboo (Kong-po). (U. 

S. N. M. 167213.) 
4. Birch bark cup (Bat'ang). (U. S. N. M. 

167228.) 
6. Birch bark pail RoDg-wa of Kiiei-te). 
(TJ. S. N. M. 167226.1 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 205 

Jtme 10. — We took a southwest by west direction and made 
for a high snow-covered peak, apparently the culminating point 
of the mountains to our right and left, and therefore christened by 
us Namchutola tolh'a or "The Head of the Namchutola." We 
followed the left bank of the middle branch of the Namchutola, 
crossing two good-sized affluents which, though now nearly dry, 
flow in rock-strewn beds over a quarter of a mile in width. 
These feeders come from the adjacent hills and cannot be over six 
or eight miles long, hence one may conclude that at certain seasons 
of the year the rainfall here must be extraordinarily heavy. To 
the south appear low ranges of red sandstone running east and 
west, and beyond these again rise the peaks of the Dungbure, in 
this part apparently of no great height. 

As we neared the base of the Namchutola tolh'a, the ground 
became hummocky and the grass fairly good, though short. We 
passed by several lakelets and finally made campbeside four small 
pools of sweet water fed by the melting snow on the summit of 
the mountain. Bunches of yaks were on every hill, and that 
readily accounted for the shortness of the grass in the neighbor- 
hood. It is wonderful what huge quantities of grass these animals 
eat, a herd of a hundred would, I believe, find barely enough on 
a good, rich meadow three miles square. Fortunately their 
droppings supplied us with an abundance of much needed fuel, 
and we were able to keep a big fire burning continually, a thing we 
had not done for many a day. 

In the afternoon, seeing a bunch of yaks less than a mile from 
camp, I started out after them, and by taking a circuitous route 
was able to get within a hundred yards of them. I broke a fore 
leg of one with my first shot, and wounded three others badly 
before they realized that they were being shot at. Then they 
broke for the higher hills and, though the wounded ones lagged 
behind and were never out of sight, I was unable to come up 
with them, so distressing was the effort to walk even slowly and 
with very frequent halts at such a high altitude. My face was 
blue and congested and my heart beat so violently that my gun 
shook when at my shoulder as if I were palsied, and so I had to 
give up the chase with chagrin, for we were all very hungry. 

We called the little pool near which we camped Shire nor or 
"the green sod lake," and the animals enjoyed the grass so much 
that we decided to rest here a few days. 



2o6 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

June II. — The Jalang says we ought to reach the Tengri nor in 
twenty days, eight days from here to the Murus, and twelve from 
that river to the lake. From the Tengri nor to Shigatse he counts 
eight to ten days march. Twelve days march from here, he says, 
will surely bring us to Tibetan tents, a most devoutly to be hoped 
for event as our provisions are decreasing so rapidly that if we 
are much longer on the way and I have no better luck shooting, 
we will surely have to kill one of our mules or horses for food. 

There are a great many larks* {pai-ling in Chinese) here; their 
singing is a most agreeable relief from the deep silence of the 
desert, which is only broken by the rumble of thunder or by the 
moaning of the wind. These birds are only now laying their 
eggs, I have found a number of their nests in the grass, each with 
three or four little mud brown eggs in them. 

This place used to be inhabited (temporarily I presume) by the 
Golok. I found to-day near our camp a lot of mani-stones and 
several hearth stones. We all turned out to try and shoot some- 
thing but saw nothing, not even a hare. Kao pa-erh fortunately 
found a quantity of onions and brought back a small bag full. 

June 12. — Again we went out to try and shoot something and 
1 killed a fine fat ass, and everyone is in better spirits (the Jalang 
and Zangbo, of course excepted, who won't eat it) than for the 
last four or five days. 

I got a sight of the Amnye malchin mengku, the high pyramidal 
snow peak noted May 31st upon crossing the Ch'u-mar valley. 
It bears from here 81° east (mag. 261°). 

June 13. — About two inches of snow fell early this morning, 
the storm, as usual, coming from the west-southwest and pre- 
ceded by an easterly breeze. I fancy there is a regular warm and 
moisture-laden current from the east, which, on meeting the cold, 
dry westerly currents prevailing in these regions, results in a hail 
storm or a sharp fall of snow, as in the present case. 

On going out to look at the animals we found one of the mules 
dying, and I had to put a bullet in its head, for big crows had 
already plucked its eyes out. It was a fine mule, but had been 
accustomed to work in towns and to being stabled, and the life I 
have led it has been too much for it. 

* Prjevalsky, Mongolia, ii., 145 and 212, calls this %^tdt% oiXzxV. Melanocorypha 
maxima. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 207 

I have again overhauled the luggage and reduced the weight a 
few pounds; now we have not six hundred pounds all told, and 
I greatly fear the provisions will not last us till we reach some 
inhabited place. I again talked over the probable length of 
the journey with the men, and the Jalang insisted that we would 
reach the Tengri nor in twenty days. Measured on the map we 
are not over two hundred and fifty miles from the lake, so if the 
mules hold out, we ought to be there by the loth of July, and at 
Shigatse or some other point on the Yaru tsangpo by the 20th of 
the same month ; but one has to count to so great an extent on 
the unforeseen on a journey like this that I dare not think I will be 
so lucky, though 1 have been wonderfully fortunate so far. 

June 14.. — Over an inch of snow fell last night. The nights 
have been so cold on the Shire nor, and the country so bleak, that 
the animals have not picked up much, and so we decided to move 
on. To-day we traveled some six miles in a southwest direction 
to the foot of a short red clay and sandstone range, trending east 
and west, and camped in a little gorge just as a violent hailstorm 
(stones half an inch in diameter), accompanied by very sharp 
thunder, swept down upon us. This new camp is about 15,900 
feet above sea level and we find it oppressive to stand still, let alone 
to move about; several of the men are sick and we all have head- 
aches and have completely lost our appetites (not a bad thing by 
the way when one's supplies are as low as ours). 

The Jalang thinks we will probably find tents on the Murus 
where we can buy sheep, but I do not care much whether we do 
or not, the men have plenty of ass flesh and so I am not worried 
about them. Last night they ate such quantities of meat — I was 
awakened several times in the night by the noise they made 
eating — that to-day they are in a stupefied and gorged condition. 
The amount of filth they (the good Hsien-sheng alone excepted, 
who is very gentlemanly in his ways) can eat is simply surprising, 
hair, dung, blood, all goes, the scum on the boiling pot they hold 
to be a delicacy; I am not particular, far from it, but I cannot eat 
the vile messes they revel in. 

The night set in with rain and snow, a sure sign of a superior 
quality of mud and slush for to-morrow. The Ts'aidam is a 
paradise compared with this vile country. 



2o8 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

June 15. — An inch and a half of wet snow covered the ground 
this morning, enough to prevent the mules and ponies from 
getting anything to eat. A little after daylight a violent squall of 
hail struck us, but by 9 a. m. the sun had nearly melted it all and 
we got off. We trudged up the bed of the stream — which flows 
from west to east along the base of the Ulan ula, " Red Hills," as 
we called them, emptying somewhere into the Namchutola or one 
of its feeders — plunging all the way knee deep in mud and water, 
till we reached its source and the west end of the Ulan ula. From 
here we enjoyed a gorgeous view of a perfect maze of mountains, 
short ranges and little massifs, all trending in a general east and 
west direction. Some eight or ten miles to the west was a beautiful 
snow peak, seemingly the point where the mountains to our north 
and the Ulan ula culminate. At its southern base was a lake, its 
greatest length being apparently from northwest to southeast. 
The lake we christened Trashi ts'o-nak, " Lake Good Luck," the 
snow peak 1 left for some other fellow to name. 

A rapid descent of about three miles brought us into a broad 
valley with a little stream flowing in an easterly direction in a 
very broad bed to meet beyond the east end of the Ulan ula the 
Namchutola. South of this broad (and dry, for a wonder,) valley 
rises the main range of the Dungbure, or rather the western 
extremity of the range, or Dungbure eken, as the Jalang calls it, 
a mountain of dark color and easily recognizable by that pecu- 
liarity, as all the other hills hereabout are of reddish hue. 

The valley in which we have camped, though sandy, is tolerably 
well covered with grass and, to add to its natural attractions the 
day has been very pleasant, clear and calm. We walked all the 
way here, so as to spare our horses, and managed to get them 
over the ten miles of bad road without any additional signs of 
fatigue. 

I was surprised to-day to see on the top of the Ulan ula (approx. 
16,500 feet above sea level) great numbers of light yellow butter- 
flies with small spots of black on their wings. I saw none any 
where else; unfortunately 1 was unable to capture any. 

June 16. — A very heavy dew fell last night, but the sky was 
beautifully clear and calm ; we enjoyed the peaceful night greatly 
and all rose this morning feeling much refreshed. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 209 

We continued our journey in a southwest direction by a very 
easy road up the course of a torrent (now nearly dry), which 
has its source on the west flank of the Dungbure eken, and 
then crossed a low col, from which we had a fine view of the 
Trashi ts'o-nak. Lake Trashi ts'o-nak, as seen from the pass, 
appeared some six or eight miles from east to west and perhaps 
two miles broad. To the west of it some thirty miles or more 
away, I saw a fine snow peak. We then descended by a short 
and narrow gorge leading into another broad valley down which 
flows a small stream, a feeder of the Toktomai. We had entered 
the basin of the Murus, the Dre ch'u, the Yang-tzu kiang of the 
Chinese.* 

I may here remark that on none of the passes which we have 
crossed, and many of which were over 16,500 feet above sea level, 
did we find old snow, so the snow line in this region cannot be 
lower than 17,000 feet above the sea. 

The red sandstone formation disappears on the north side of 
Dungbure eken and a bluish sandstone takes its place. Just as 
we were making camp a heavy squall of rain and snow with a 
southwest wind struck us and drenched us to the skin. South- 
erly winds are a novelty, we have only had them two or three 
times, and that within the last few days. 

From a little above our camp I had pointed out to me, due 
south of us, Mt. Buha mangna. Between this dark, truncated, 
pyramid-shaped peak and ourselves is a perfect sea of hills, all 
trending more or less east and west. Nowhere can 1 see a snow 
peak; they are extremely rare in this region; we have not seen a 
dozen so far on the journey. 

* Cf. Prjevalsky, Mongolia, ii, 128. In the light of more recent investigations 
we are able to correct a number of errors in which this traveler fell. The river in 
question is known as Murus to the Mongols and as Dre ch'u to Tibetans. From 
Bat'ang to where it enters China it is called by the Chinese Chin chiang ho or " Gold 
River;" from the latter point to Sui Fu in Ssu-ch'uan, as Chin sha chiang or 
" Golden sand river," and from Sui Fu eastward, asTa chiang or "the Great river." 
Prjevalsky says that Tibetans call it Link-arab at its confluence with the Namchutu 
ulan muren. The point where the Dre ch'u is forded, on the high road between 
Hsi-ning and Lh'asa, is called Dre ch'u rabs, " the ford of the Dre ch'u." Probably 
he refers to this place. He further says (p. 132) that on the Dang la the snow line 
on the north side is approximately at 5,100 meters (15,728 feet) and on the south 
side at 5,250 meters (17,220 feet above sea level). I am inclined to believe that it 
is really even considerably higher than 1 estimated it. 



2IO JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

Yeh Hsien-sheng and Kao pa-erh had a grand row this evening, 
the former accusing the latter of stealing ; they wanted to kill 
each other and I had a good deal of trouble in quieting them, 
but the Hsien-sheng will always listen to reason and I hushed up 
the matter as it won't do for the time being; I told him that when 
we get to the journey's end 1 will give him a chance to have it 
out with the cook. The hard work and poor fare has made 
everyone cross and snappish; 1 know that I am terribly disagree- 
able myself, daily 1 vent my spleen on the cook and the Lao-han. 

We saw one yak and a jackass, but signs of yak are very abun- 
dant and the grass has all been eaten very short by them. The 
grass is just beginning to turn green, a few yellow and white 
tulips {ma-lien hua) and some iris are the only flowers 1 can see. 

June ij. — Several of the horses and mules, though hobbled 
and side-lined, followed some wild asses in the night, and it took 
us three or four hours this morning to find them and bring them 
back. A wild jackass will round up and drive off a bunch of 
tame ponies in a wonderfully quick and clever way. These 
animals are most troublesome; more than once I have had to 
shoot at them to drive them away from around camp. 

We descended to the foot of the hills to a little stream which 
flowed in a south-southwest direction, between low hills of fine 
bluish sandstone, and followed it for some twelve miles to where 
it took an easterly bend, to empty into some other feeder of the 
Toktomai. To the south of where we have camped to-day 
is another plain running east and west, in which the red sand- 
stone again crops out, forming a short range of hills, and from 
the top of a hill behind our camp 1 saw that this sandstone 
formation extends as far to the west as the eye could reach.* 
Small ponds and lakelets dot the plain to the south of us, and 
others appear here and there to the westward. The country 
seems badly drained, here the waters empty into small sinks, 
there they flow off to feed the Toktomai. 

We saw a great many orongo antelope and hares, but though 
I failed to kill one of the former I bagged seven of the latter, and 
we had "a good square meal " — for a change. 

* Capt. Bower found this red sandstone nearly 400 miles west of this point in 
the same latitude. See H. Bower, Diary of a Journey Across Tibet, 17. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 211 

A few miles above our camping ground we passed an old 
Tibetan camp, marked by rude stone altars aftd fire-places such 
as the Panaka build. Probably the people from south of the 
Murus come here occasionally to kill yaks, or else it is a rendez-vous 
for the Golok, from whence they can easily reach caravans trav- 
eling on the highroad to Lh'asa, some fifty miles east of here. 

A southerly wind has been blowing again to-day ajid we have 
had several little showers; the temperature is milder and the air has 
more life in it. It is lower (15,200 feet) here than any place we 
have traversed for the last nine days, and every foot tells, as far as 
the facility of breathing is concerned. 

June 18. — We crossed a plain about three miles broad, in which 
were several lakelets and also a small stream flowing in a south- 
west direction through a broad opening in a line of low, red 
sandstone hills. Passing this, we continued m a south-southwest 
direction over an open plateau, bordered to the south by a range 
of hills running nearly east and west, but so confused and cut up 
that it was difficult either to lay them down on the map or indi- 
cate their trend with any accuracy. At their northern base, some 
eight miles away, several rivulets which drain this broad plain 
meet to form the northernmost fork of the Toktomai ulan muren, 
"The gently flowing red river."* 

Some thirty to forty miles to the west of our route and in the 
line of the axis of the little plain in which were the two lakelets 
noticed previously, I saw a fine snow peak. We made about 
fourteen miles and camped by the river bank, where fine grass 
covered all the country round. The soil along the Toktomai is a 

* Father Grueber, when traveling to Lh'asa, crossed this river, where the Hsi-ning- 
Nagchuk'a road cuts it. " Le Pere s'eloignant ensuite peu a peu de son rivage 
(/. (?., du Koko-nor), il antra dans le Toktokai, pais presque desert et d'ailleurs si 
sterile, qu'il n'a point a craindre I'ambition de ses voisins.. La riviere de Toktokai 
arose ce pais, et lui donna son nom: c'est une fort belle riviere, aussi large que le 
Danube; mais elle a si peu de fond, qu'un homme a cheval la peut passer a guay 
partout. De la ayant traverse le pais de Tangut il arriva a Retink, province fort 
peuplee, dependante du royaume de Barantola; it vint en suite au royaume mesme 
de Barantola. La ville capitale de ce royaume s'appelle Lassa; * * *" Theve- 
not, Relations, II, IV^ Partie, p. t. The district of Reting (his Retink) and Reting 
gomba are nearly due east of the Tengri nor and on the road to Lh'asa. Reting 
gomba is about twenty-eight miles from Lh'asa, and has some two hundred lamas 

residing in it at present. Report of Explorations made by A K in 

i879-'82, p. 36. 



212 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

rather soft red sandstone gravel. We saw several small herds of 
orongo and an occasional solitary jackass v/andering listlessly 
over the hills. 

To-day has been the first since we left the Naichi valley, twenty- 
three days ago, in which we have had neither rain, snow, hail nor 
wind; but it hailed not a mile away from camp this evening, and 
we have heard the low sound of thunder, and, as I write (9 p. m.), 
it is blowing hard from the east. 

The Toktomai is at this spot about twenty feet broad and two 
feet deep in the middle, with a strong current. I greatly enjoyed 
a bath in the river; it has put new life in me, but the Chinese and 
Mongols think 1 am crazy to jump into such icy water. 1 noticed 
numbers of little brown lizards, in shape something like a chame- 
leon, though flatter. I wish 1 could have taken a few along with 
me, but my flask of brandy is too precious to waste it on such 
things, and 1 have no alcohol, it has all leaked out of the copper 
can in which I had it. 

The weather since we crossed the Dungbure has greatly 
improved, and is warmer and clearer than farther north. The 
prevailing winds have become southerly, a quarter from which 
they never seem to blow in or near the Ts'aidam. 

June 19. — For the first time since we left the Ts'aidam, we left 
off our sheepskin ch'ubas. The day was most delightful until 
about an hour before sunset when a violent west wind sprang up 
which died down, however, at 10 p. m. 

We followed the river to-day for fifteen miles, crossing it twice 
on the way. the valley broadening out a little below camp to nearly 
five miles in width, the bottom land of fine reddish gravel, boggy 
in many places, the higher ground covered with good grass. 
The river has a swift current with a fall of about twenty feet to 
the mile. The mountains on the west side of the valley are 
considerably higher than those on the east, which are not over 
two hundred feet high. Nearly due south of us is the Buha 
mangna, along whose western flank our route lies, while the 
highroad to Nagch'uk'a runs some little distance from its eastern 
base. We saw a few yaks, some wild asses and antelopes; 
numerous old hearths along the river bank testified to the occasional 
presence of man (probably Goloks) in this quarter. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 213 

The sandstone formation is still visible at our camp this even- 
ing, but red sandstone is not so abundant as it was yesterday. 

We have all noticed that on rainy or foggy days we feel the 
effect of the high altitude more than on clear, dry ones. 

Jtrne 20. — Eight miles below camp the north branch of the 
Toktomai is deflected due east, around a small hill with a rocky 
crest, and at its eastern extremity it empties into the southern or 
main branch of the Toktomai, which flows down a broad valley 
running due east and west, and some forty miles in length. 

Leaving the north branch at the bend, we continued due south 
for six miles, till we came to the south branch, a good-sized river 
flowing in a number of channels over a soft sandstone gravel bed 
a half mile in width. We had not a little difficulty in getting 
across, as the channels were deep and the sand very soft. There 
is certainly five times as much water in this branch as in the 
northern. 

We camped near the right bank of the river, and 1 saw far to 
the 'west, probably forty or fifty miles, a large, snow-covered 
mountain, in or near which, 1 take it, the south branch of the 
Toktomai has its source, but the mountains which border the 
valley on either side take a sharp bend about twelve miles west of 
our camp, and hide from me the trend of the valley beyond that 
point. Nothing but a small plain now separates us from the Buha 
mangnii,* which rises dark and imposing some ten miles to the 
southeast of us. To the south, in which direction our route leads, 
I can only see a slight rise in the ground, and the Jalang says this 
is all that separates in that direction the valley of the Toktomai 
from that of the Murus. 

The grazing is excellent on every side of us, and the weather 
continues fair. Three days of fine weather! This looks as if 
the worst of the journey was over, 1 mean as far as climate is 
concerned. It blew again in the evening, a result 1 suppose of 
the rapid cooling off of the soil at this high altitude. 

From what I have been able to learn so far, there are three roads 
leading into Tibet from the north, and all probably parallel to the 

* Called by Explorer A K Bukhmangne. See Report on Explorations 

by A K in i8jg-^82, 40. 



214 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

trail we are following.* ist. By the highroad vid, the Angirtakshia; 
2nd. West of the one we are following, and followed by the 
Taichinar Mongols of Hajir, leading over country similar to that 
we have traversed, crossing no high passes, but along it water 
and grazing are poor; 3rd. Considerably farther west than No. 2 
and leading directly from the Lob nor. This last is followed by 
the Torgot Mongols and is, I imagine, the one taken by Bonvalot. 
It is said to be very bad. 

I caught a glimpse of the famous Dang la chain this evening; 
it is the first really imposing range I have seen. Its name is 
written Grangs la (pronounced in the Lh'asan dialect Dang la) 
meaning " cold, icy." A good name for it, as along most of its 
length it rises far above the snowline. 

June 21. — A few miles south of our camp of yesterday, we 
crossed some very low hills which prolong the foothills of the 
Buha mangna to the west, and entered the basin of the Murus, 
From this point we got our first view, in a southeast direction, of 
an immense snowpeak, probably Prjevalsky's Mt. Dorsi, but called 
by my guide, Atak Habsere mengku or " Lower Habsere snow- 
peak."! To the east of it we saw another great snow-covered 
mountain which I took for Prjevalsky's Mt. Djoma. The Jalang, 
who ought to know, says its name is Satokto san-koban, meaning 
something like "enfant terrible." Crossing a rivulet, which 
probably empties into the Murus about twelve miles east of our 
route, we ascended another range of low hills and the Murus 
(" The River"), or the north branch of it, if the Jalang is to be 
trusted (though I have never heard tell of two branches of this 
river), was before us.| Crossing the col we camped about a 
mile below it; the river about a mile farther south. 

* Chinese works, referring to roads to Lh'asa from the north, make mention of (i) 
a road from Yarkand around the Ts'ung-ling and through Ngari to Lh'asa; (2) a 
road from Yashar in Ku-che, " It is through marshes and mire and is difficult; " (3) 
a road by the Murus (this is the Hsi-ning high road) ; (4) a road from Koliya near 
Ilchi (Khoten). " It goes due east through the Gobi to Kartsang-guja, thence by 
way of Pang-t'ang across a lakelet to the Tengri nor, then to the Sang-to lake, 
which is 200 /« from Lh'asa. Hsi-yu kao ku lu, vi., 8. 

t None of the Mongols with me could suggest any interpretation of the word 
Habseri, though it would appear to be Mongol. 

JAs will be seen further on the Jalang was wrong, as there does not appear to be 
more than one branch to the head waters of this great river in this direction. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 215 

Climbing a steep hill directly east of our camp I had a splendid 
view of the great Dang la range, certainly the most imposing chain 
of mountains I have seen in Asia. While its eastern extension 
was far beyond our line of vision, its western end did not appear 
to be over forty miles away, and from this point it bore 250° west 
(Mag. 70°). The Atak Habsere bore nearly southeast (E. 155°), 
the Tumta (or "Middle") Habsere bore southwest by south 
(W. 210°), and the Eken (or "Upper") Habsere was to the 
southwest (W. 222.°). The Atak Habsere is the most import- 
ant of the "Three Habsere" (Kurban Habsere).* 

The Jalang says that the main branch of the Murus flows some 
six or eight miles south of the one before us, behind a low range 
of hills on the south side of the river and near the base of the 
Dang la. 

The hills around our camp are of limestone, a rock we have 
not seen since passing the Kuan-shong k'utur. 

A violent hailstorm swept over us just as we were making 
camp, and in the evening a strong east breeze blew and there was 
a good deal of lightning to the south. Grass is getting green here- 
about and 1 picked a number of flowers {^Carex, Kobresia, Fes- 
tuces, Lagotis, etc.). 

While on the march we saw a number of yaks, wild asses, 
orongo and huang-yang, but they were all so wild that it was 
impossible to get a shot at them. Since crossing the Dungbure, 
huang-yang {Antilope gutturosd) have become much more 
numerous than to the north of those mountains. 

We have had no meat for a number of days now, and are reduced 
to eating onion duff, as I suppose I should call flour and chopped 
onions cooked in grease; and a pretty poor mess it is! 

June 22. — We followed up the course of the Murus for about 
nine miles over sandy soil tolerably well covered with grass. 
The river bottom where we came on to it is about six miles 
wide. To the south it is bordered by a range of very low hills 
beyond which is another low range running parallel to the main 
or Dang la chain. In this latter valley is said to flow the southern 
branch of the upper Murus, or rather the principal feeder of the 
headwaters of this river. 

*A K calls the Atak Habsere, Atag-hapchiga, and the Eken Habsere, 

Yakenhapchiga. 



2i6 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

1 noticed in the river bed (I also saw one yesterday just before 
making camp), what 1 toolc for mud springs, an upheaval of mud 
and soft stone, all of a reddish color, from which trickled little 
streamlets. 

Having found a spot where the river appeared fordable, it being 
there divided into a number of channels, we rearranged the loads 
and sent the Hsien-sheng ahead to try the ford. The water 
reached to his horse's back and the current proved very strong, 
but the river bottom was hard, so we took the mules over one by 
one, and after an hour's hard work everything was landed on the 
right bank without accident. The water was very muddy and 
the river much swollen from the melting snows and by the daily 
rains, but there was no evidence that it ever overflows its bed 
to any considerable extent. 

We camped not far from the river near some pools of water 
around which there was fine grazing. A violent thunderstorm 
swept down both sides of the valley from 2 to 5 p. M., with very 
heavy hail, but we escaped its violence. 

The Jalang is turning out to be a vile tempered old savage. He 
had to-day a quarrel with all the men about his food allowance and 
his tea. He threatens continually to leave us if I do not comply 
with all his demands. So far 1 have been able to restrain myself, 
but some day I will have to have it out with him. His brother 
Panti says the Jalang knows nothing of the country through 
which he is now taking us, that he has never been here before, 
and that we will never get to the Tengri nor by this route. To 
all this the Jalang does not deign to reply. He passes much of 
his time while we are camped seated on some commanding hilltop 
surveying the country, and when he comes back he invariably says 
that he has found the landmarks he was looking for and that we 
are in the right way. I trust more to the compass and maps, 
poor as they are, than to him, but I say nothing. 

June 23. — It rained heavily during the night and this morning 
it was very cloudy. We followed up the river in a southwest 
direction for about ten miles, then crossing it where it flows due 
south and north, we continued in a westerly direction about two 
miles and camped near some pools of water at the foot of a line 
of low hills. 






1. Felt summeb hat (Ts'aidam). U. 9. N 

M. Ifi7191.) 
3. Fur cap, lined with fell (Namru d6). 

(C. 8. N. M. 167193.) 



'^'"^^'^^. 




2. SuMMr.n hat (Namru de). (U. S. N. M. 

ir>7192.) 
4. Cap of Tibetans and Mongols of Koko 

nor. (U. S. N. M. i:ni8f>.) 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 217 

The Murus, where we left it, could be traced up as far as the Eken 
Habsere massif in which it certainly has its source. Where we 
crossed it to-day it was about two feet deep and probably seventy- 
five feet wide. This does not necessarily imply that we are far 
from the sources of this great river, as in this region a stream 
grows with wonderful rapidity. I traced up with my eye the 
course of the river for about ten miles, and could see numerous 
brooks emptying into it, quite enough to account for its volume 
where we crossed it. The Murus' ultimate source is certainly m 
the snows and ice on the Eken Habsere, which is very nearly 
southwest by south from our camp of this evening. 

A curious feature of the valleys of the Murus and of the Toktomai 
is the presence there of innumerable little pools or sinks in which 
is collected all the water that falls in the valley bottoms and over 
a large area of the contiguous hills. These pools have no visible 
outlets into the rivers. To-day, for example, we certainly passed 
twenty-five such lakelets, some of them on the very bank of the 
stream. 

Another heavy thunderstorm at 2 p. M., at which time they 
always occur, but as usual it kept to the mountains. The Jalang's 
plan is to go around the Dang la, as we have done in the case of 
the Koko-shili, Dungbure, etc.; it is a good one and will prove 
interesting, for I am thus able to define the limits of the basins of all 
these important rivers, the Ch'u-mar, Namchutola and Toktomai. 
He thinks that by the day after to-morrow we should reach the 
head of the Murus valley or, as he calls it, the Dang la tolh'a, the 
beginning (or "head") of the Dang la. On the south side of 
this big range he thinks we shall find tents and be able to buy 
sheep. The south side of such a range must, however, be a long 
way off, the Jalang's assurances notwithstanding, and we are all 
getting very hungry. We cannot, I think, be much more than 
two hundred and fifty miles from Shigatse. a month's journey, 
but will we make it in a month with mules and ponies weakening, 
a guide who is not to be trusted, and the possibility of being 
stopped by the first chief we fall in with, in case we have not 
steered clear of Lh'asan territory } The road we are following has 
been so far a good and direct one, but one big river, or worse still, 
the impossibility of renewing our supplies, and the consequent 
necessity of seeking some chief and getting assistance from him, 
will cause the best laid plans to come to naught. 



2i8 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

June 24.. — We made fourteen miles in a west-southwest by 
west direction up the valley of the little feeder of the Murus we 
entered yesterday after crossing that river. There was a steady 
though hardly perceptible rise in the ground. Though we have 
been traveling on what seems level ground since coming to the 
Murus, we are this evening six hundred and fifty feet higher than 
when we struck the river three days ago. 

Limestone is the principal rock in the hills to the south, and, if 
I may judge by the gravel and dibris washed down from the 
northern hills, sandstone, mostly reddish, predominates there. 

I no longer believe in the Jalang's statement that we have been 
along the north branch of the Murus. There is no south branch, 
we have had ocular proof of this. Now to explain away the lie, 
for it was nothing else (and I believe that he has never been this 
far west before, but probably came along the trail we have here- 
tofore followed as far as the Toktomai, and then cut east and 
joined the highroad), he says that the Mongols believe that the 
Murus divides into two branches southwest of here to reunite 
again to the east of the Buha-mangna. 

The usual 2 p. m. thunderstorm visited us again to-day, and as 
usual also it came from the west. Since leaving the Ts'aidam 
we have never had a storm from another quarter. From this 
camp Eken Habsere bears southeast by south (E. 175°). 

June 25. — We are camping to-night at the head of the Murus 
valley in this direction, and at an altitude of 16,850 feet above 
sea level. We have also reached the west end of the Dang la 
range. The country all the way here was of gravel, and for a few 
miles before making camp the ground was covered with grass- 
grown hummocks. The hills on either side of us are three 
hundred or four hundred feet high, but the main range to the 
north, which bends now in a slightly northerly direction, and is 
some five or six miles away, rises over two thousand feet above 
the surrounding country. 

We reached camp by 2.30 p. m., and by 3.30 it was snowing 
hard, with a great deal of thunder, which in these high altitudes, 
by the way, always sounds like the rattle of musketry. By 5 
o'clock the snow stopped falling (three inches on a level), but 
shortly after a heavy fog enveloped us, and at 7 p. m. the ther- 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 219 

mometer stood at 25° Fahrenheit. From here the western end of 
the Dang la seems to be a line of low black hills, over which our 
route must lay. Along our road to-day limestone and sandstone 
appeared in about equal proportions, but, 1 fancy, judging from its 
rugged outlines, the Dang la is of eruptive formation. 

Again to-day we saw quite a large herd of yaks, but they fled 
when we were a mile away, and we were only able to kill one 
hare, just enough to give our mess of mien a little flavor. 

June 26. — We crossed the foothills of the Dang la, taking a 
west-southwest by west direction. In the first place, we passed 
six or eight miles south of a small lake, possibly three miles long, 
and which we called Dzurken ula nor, from its proximity to a 
black, commanding peak which we thought looked like a heart 
(^dzurken in Mongol), and was consequently named by us Dzurken 
ula. To our west, some twenty miles away, rose a short range of 
mountains with its central portion covered with snow. This, the 
Jalang thinks, and I agree with him, must be the snow peak seen 
from our camp on the south branch of the Toktomai and which I 
then thought must be at the source of that river.* We have left 
the valley of the Murus behind ; the water from all the surrounding 
hills south and west of us empties into the Dzurken ula nor. We 
are at last on the central plateau of North Tibet. f From its flanks 
flow the Murus, the Salwen and half a dozen other great rivers, 
and here is also the eastern extremity of the great Central Asian 
Plateau. 

Away to the southwest there is a low ridge running westward 
and connecting the Dang la with another range of hills, but we 
have, as we hoped, turned the great mountains. The snow peaks 
at whose base we are now camped are truly the " Head of the 
Dang la " (Dang la tolh'a). They rise apparently 2,000 feet above 
the snow line and, as at least for 1,000 above where we are camped 
(17,000 feet above sea level) they are without snow, we must 

* See 20th June. 

t Politically speaking Tibet begins at the Dang la. All the country between the 
Ts'aidam and that range is in reality a no-man's land, called usually Chang fang or 
"Northern plain." Capt. Bower uses the word Chang alone, but that only means 
"the North." 



220 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

conclude that the line of perpetual snow in this region is at very 
nearly 18,000 feet above the level of the sea.* 

We had our usual hailstorm at 3 p. m., with accompanying 
thunder and westerly wind. The Jalang thinks that we will see 
the Dang la behind us in two days, that three days later we shall 
make the Amdo ts'o-nak and that within eight or ten days, going 
tabar, tabar ("Slowly, slowly"), we shall have reached the 
Tengri nor. If my charts are anywhere near correct, I do not 
see how this can be, but the Jalang is a pretty good guesser; even 
if he has not been in these parts before, he has the true instinct of 
a guide, he divines where the trail should be, and so far he has 
done his work very well. 

June 27. — We continued to-day in the same west-southwest 
direction as yesterday, along the foothills of the Dang la, crossing 
a number of torrents, one about two feet deep and thirty to forty 
feet wide, but flowing in a bed at least one-third of a mile in 
width. The soil is everywhere fine gravel and very little grass 
grows anywhere on it. Our view of the Dang la and its snow 
fields is absolutely unobstructed. I cannot decide whether there 
are any glaciers; I am inclined to think there are none. The rocks 
I see are all limestone and granite. We have camped on the 
north slope of some low hills, and I fancy that to-morrow we 
will enter the basin of some river flowing southward. The whole 
country, as far as I can see, is covered with hills, between which 
are pools and lakelets receiving all the drainage. 

It snowed heavily for about an hour this morning and again in 
the afternoon, when there blew a strong north wind, but the day 
would not be complete now without a storm. 

June 28. — A couple of miles from camp we crossed a low col, 
and then took a southwest course over a perfectly bare plain of 

*"0n the southern declivity of the Himalaya, the limit of perpetual snow is 
12,978 feet above the level of the sea; on the northern declivity, or rather on the 
peaks which rise above the Tibet or Tartarian plateau, the limit is 16,625 feet, from 
30>^° to 32° of latitude, while at the equator, in the Andes of Quito, it is 15,590. 
* * * The greater elevation to which the limit of perpetual snow recedes on the 
Tartarian declivity is owing to the radiation of heat from tiie neighboring elevated 
plains, to the purity of the atmosphere, and the infrequent formation of snow in an 
air which is both cold and very dry." Alex, von Humboldt, Asie Centrale, III., 
281-326, and Cosmos (Harper's edit., 1850), I., 30-32, 331-332. The camp of 
June 26th was in latitude north 33° 42''. See also note/. 2og. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 221 

gravel, cut here and there by torrents, some with beds over half a 
mile wide, which empty into a stream flowing westward and 
which we called, on account of the great quantity of ice on its 
surface, Keten gol or " Cold River." 

We are now well to the west of the Dang la, which stretches 
out in a southeast by south direction, as far as we can see. Some 
twenty miles south of us we can distinguish a short range of 
black hills, and nearer to us in the same quarter another short 
range, running southeast and northwest, from which issue several 
streams emptying a mile below our camp into the Keten gol. No 
mountain range ot any importance beside the Dang la can be seen, 
but innumerable little blocks of hills intersect the country in every 
direction. The soil is very barren; where we have camped there 
is a little grass, but elsewhere there is only sand and gravel. 

The soft wet gravel, through which we have of late traveled so 
much, has been very trying on the feet of our ponies and mules; 
every one of them is lame. We will rest here for a day and then 
push on as rapidly as possible to the Tengri nor. 

To-day has been the third fine day we have had since leaving 
the Naichi gol. It is very enjoyable. 

Towards dark we saw a bull yak feeding on the hills west of 
our camp and we all turned out to get a shot at him. He started 
off at a great pace when we were half a mile off, and though we 
followed him till dark up and down the hills we never got near 
enough to shoot. When one has been very hungry for over a 
month, stalking is exciting work. There is not even a sheldrake 
to be seen, not a lark nor a marmot; the silence of this vast wild- 
erness is positively oppressive. 

June 29. — Another beautiful, warm day, though quite a thick 
coating of ice formed on the river last night and the minimum 
thermometer registered-!- 13°3, but during the day it went up to 
97°. The Jalang passed the morning seated on the top of the 
highest hill he could find near camp, and when he came back he 
reported that he had seen Bumza shili (north of Nagchuk'a), also 
a large lake to the west of us into which the Keten gol empties. 
He thinks that by keeping a southwest course we shall pass well 
to the west of the Amdo ts'o-nak and the Tengri nor, and thus 
not have to travel on Lh'asan territory but on that of Ulterior Tibet 
(or Tsang) and that we shall thus not meet any town, gomba or 



222 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

thickly peopled district until we are close to Shigatse. I agree as 
to the advisability of keeping a southwest course, but don't believe 
he saw Mt. Bumza, that is quite impossible, it is a long, long 
way off. 

The men, in expectation of our finding Drupa the day after 
to-morrow, and in view of the consequent feast of mutton in 
store for them, have laid in a large stock of onions with which 
they propose to stuff the delicious sausages {ch'ang-tzu) they will 
then make with the intestines, lights, heart, etc. 

We have absolutely nothing left to eat but a little flour and tea. 
To-day I ate my last dish of rice and currants. Henceforth we 
shall take one meal a day and for the rest of the time content our- 
selves with tea. Kao has greatly horrified the other two Chinese 
by smoking tobacco, and they have talked to him so seriously 
about the matter that he has finally given it up. They will not 
eat the wild ass meat; they say their religion (Islam) forbids 
eating the flesh of any animal with an uncloven hoof 

It is curious that Panti, who is asthmatic and suffered greatly 
from shortness of breath in the Ts'aidam, does not experience any 
additional inconvenience at the high altitudes at which we have 
since then lived. In fact, none of the men, save Yeh Hsien-sheng 
and myself, are in the least inconvenienced by the rarified atmos- 
phere. Kao pa-erh, who is at his first experience of high altitudes, 
can sleep without even so much as a stone under his head, and 
that on a full stomach (or as near one as he can get), and not feel 
oppressed in the least. 

It is astonishing how very regular is the pace of our animals; 
two or three times every day I measure their step, and I invariably 
find that to keep beside a given one in the line I must take from 
ninety-eight to one hundred paces of thirty inches in a minute on 
level ground, and from eighty-four to eighty-eight when on a 
steep path, either ascending or descending. 

June JO. — We got off by 8.15 a. m. The hills to the west- 
southwest of our camp and over the southern extremity of which 
we had to pass, are composed largely of flints.* From their 
summit we caught our first glimpse of a large expanse of dark blue 
water about twelve miles to the southwest, and on whose western 
shore rises a steep and bare red sandstone hill. We crossed the 

* We called these hills Huo-shih shan, " Fire stone hills." 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 223 

Keten gol at its mouth on the shore of the lake, and camped on a 
green hillslope one hundred feet above the water. The lake is 
about fifteen miles in its greatest length (northeast to southwest) 
and in places seven or eight miles wide. The mountains on its 
western side looked very beautiful as we came down to the lake, 
with their many shades of red and yellow limestone, with here 
and there a broad vein of white, the colors brightening or becom- 
ing obscure as the sunlight shone upon them or a cloud swept 
between them and the sun. An end of the lake was at one 
moment wrapped in darkness, hail poured down and the thunder 
rattled, but soon all its blue surface glittered in the sunlight, and 
there was no sound but that of the wavelets breaking on the 
sandy beach in a gentle murmur. 

Around where we have camped 1 can see many old well- 
blackened hearth stones; I suppose Tibetans come here to get 
salt. The water of the lake is nearly undrinkable, and possibly 
there are deposits of pure salt near here. The grazing is splendid, 
and the mosquitoes enormous and ferocious.* 

July I. — Our route lay parallel to the shore of the lake over a 
slightly undulating country. About three miles south of our camp 
we crossed a good sized though shallow river, which comes from 
out the hills to the southeast, some ten to fifteen miles away. 
Farther on we crossed the dry beds of several torrents; they were 
nearly a mile in width in many places. We camped about nine- 
teen miles southwest of our camp of yesterday, on the bank of 
another small stream flowing into the lake from the hills which 
surround it on the south. The water of this stream, like that of 
all those emptying into this lake, is very brackish, nearly unfit for 
use. 1 was unable to detect any outlet for the waters of the lake, 
though it seems hardly credible that evaporation can dispose of 
the enormous quantity which must flow into it, and I have seen no 
signs of its level ever being much higher than at present. My 
Mongols are persuaded that this lake is the Tengri nor, and I 
cannot disabuse them of this conceit. 

While on the top of a small hill about six miles from where we 
are now camped, 1 got sight of some snow peaks to the west, 
and at no great distance from the lake; and from this point I took 

* Later on 1 learnt that this lake is called Chib-chang ts'o (or T'eb-chang ts'o). 1 
called it temporarily Lake Glenelg. 



224 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

also what I fancy will be my last view of the western extremity 
of the Dang la. 

To judge from the vast amount of yak's and sheep's droppings 
and hearth stones which cover the ground where we have camped 
to-day, numerous caravans must travel over this road. We also 
found a number of worn out saddle bags, such as are used by 
Tibetans to carry salt in on the backs of sheep. The two bags 
hold a load of about twenty pounds. The Jalang says the Amdo 
Tibetans (from the Amdo ts'o-nak country) travel this way when 
going to the salt mines in the Dang la. This lake must be one of 
the numerous Ts'aka with which, according to Chinese author- 
ities, this region abounds. It corresponds very roughly in position 
with the Liarchagan lake of previous maps, and is approximately 
15,800 feet above sea level.* The Jalang has never been here, he 
has finally admitted it to me. All we can do now is to follow our 
noses, and trust to luck. 

The grazing is now good everywhere and our animals are doing 
well. If only we could do like King Nebuchadnezzar and eat 
grass ! I have nothing but a couple of biscuits {mofno), some tea 
and tobacco, and of even the latter only enough for a couple of 
days, but we all hope to see black tents to-morrow. We had a 
thunderstorm with rain to-day, the second time it has rained since 
we left the Naichi gol. 

July 2. — We took a south-southwest course parallel to a short 
range of mountains of no great height on our right. The sandy 
plain over which we traveled is traversed by a number of small 
streams flowing, some westward, into a lake which the Jalang 
saw yesterday some distance to the west, the others emptying 
into little pools at the foot of the hills, these possibly communi- 
cating by underground channels with the former sheet of water. 

From the low red sandstone hill on which we have camped this 
evening, 1 can see that the hills to the south of the Ts'aka (Chib 
chang ts'o) run west as far as the eye can reach. 

I have to-day distributed to the men the last cupful of tsamba 
we have; if they could be persuaded to only eat a mouthful a day 
it might last for ten days, but it won't, I know these people too 
well. They will, with the exception of the Hsien-sheng, who 

* Its name, Chib chang ts'o, is evidently represented by the Chang chong chaka 
(ts'aka) of our maps. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 225 

will do exactly what I tell him, make one or two " square meals," 
and then live on tea until such time as something better turns up. 
1 distributed among them my own supply of tsamba and chura 
and have now absolutely nothing but a small flask of brandy 
which I have treasured up so far in case of an emergency, satisfying 
my desire for it with an occasional smell of the liquor. We saw 
no sign of people having been in this region for months past, 
probably not since last year; we may meet some any time, but 
then they may have nothing to sell us, or refuse positively to sell 
what they have, and so it may go on for days. 1 shot a wild ass 
to-day just before making camp; it fell at the first shot; we all ran 
up excitedly but the famished dogs were there before us, and up 
jumped the ass and made off. Do what 1 would I could not put 
my pony into even a trot; he was like his master, too played out 
for sport. The men took our misfortune with true Mohammedan 
stoicism; Tien ming, "it is Heaven's decree," was all they 
said, and mounting their ponies rode on. 

July 3. — We traveled to-day about twenty miles, for the greater 
part of the time in a nearly due southerly direction; crossing two 
ranges of hills projecting from those to our east, and running due 
east and west ; the stream between them flowed westward. These 
hills appeared to be composed mostly of shale of a yellowish color. 
The ground under our feet was of fine gravel, and very little grass 
was anywhere to be seen. Two miles before making camp we 
crossed a col, the ascent to which was quite long; I made it out to 
be 16,500 feet above sea level. From where we have stopped, a 
couple of hundred feet below the summit on the south side of the 
pass, we command an extensive view, but I can see nothing 
before us but mountains and jagged walls of rocks projecting 
from their summits. 

The Jalang says that he followed this circuitous trail, of which 
he had once heard tell, so that we might not fall in with too many 
black tents, the people of which might have impeded our 
progress. This plan has turned out wonderfully successful ; it has 
been entirely too much of a success. Again to-day we have 
sought in vain for signs of human life; though we are on a well 
beaten highroad now, no one has passed this way for months past, 
and no one is such a fool as to live here, 1 feel convinced. 

There is a little bird, I have heard its sweet little twitter ever 
since we have crossed the Dang la but have never seen it, for it 



226 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

sings at or even before the break of day and just after dark when 
the rest of creation is still. Its note is plaintive but very sweet; 
I would like to see the little fellow, he helps so to make life 
bearable. 

July 4.. — During the night it rained hard from ten to eleven 
o'clock, and then for three hours it sleeted. The storm, which 
was accompanied by thunder and lightning, came as usual from 
the west. After crossing a little stream flowing westward, we 
entered to-day a broad valley. At its southern end the stream 
flowing through it bends abruptly westward and enters a narrow 
gorge. The upper part of this valley is marked by a curious 
ridge of rocks, probably limestone, running east and west, and 
which, from a distance, might be taken for a line of old gnarled 
and dead trees, so sharp are their outlines. In this valley we 
came again on the highroad followed by those going to the 
northern salt mines, and we had to make up our minds to follow 
it, for no other route led out of the valley. I felt, however, 
reluctant to do so for where it left the stream at the southern end 
of the valley, it bent southeastward, a direction I was very loath 
to take for even a short distance, so apprehensive did 1 feel lest it 
should bring me too near to or perhaps on Lh'asan territory, of 
which I must try at all hazards to steer clear.* 

We had to camp near a lakelet on the top of the pass at the 
south end of the valley we had followed all day, for two of the 
horses having given out, they could not be made to go a step 
farther. The ground was soaked, the argols too wet to burn, the 
only water we could get was muddy and brackish. It was a poor 
place for a camp, bleak beyond description, the only thing which 
commended it was the grass. We broke up one of our packing 
boxes to start a fire and dry some argols for fuel, and with the 
thermometer at 40°, at an altitude of 16,000 feet and with a cold 
wind blowing the smoke into our inflamed eyes, we tried to 
celebrate "the glorious fourth" with a wee bit of dry bread and 
tea, but it was a failure — no one felt any enthusiasm. 

* I think Capt. Bower crossed my route on his way east at the foot of this hill. 
As well as 1 can make out, he entered this valley by the gorge down which the stream 
flows. If he did not cross my route here, he must have done so some twenty miles 
farther north, but strangely enough his sketch map does not show in this part any 
stream of any length flowing west, although all those I crossed flowed in that direc- 
tion. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 227 

July 5-. — The summit of the pass turned out to be about three 
miles beyond our camp of last night, but only a few hundred feet 
higher than it. We rode to-day in a south-southeasterly direction 
over hills and across dales all trending nearly due east and west, 
all the water flowing westward and emptying into a large lake 
some six or eight miles to the west of our route. We also saw 
from one of the cols we crossed, and some fifteen miles east of it, 
a large sheet of water which the Jalang thought might be the 
Amdo ts'o-nak, but, as for four days the weather has been so cloudy 
that 1 have not been able to take an observation, I cannot form 
an opinion. As laid down (conjecturally) on existing maps, the 
Amdo ts'o-nak is somewhat farther south than the point we have 
reached.* 

After about twenty-two miles over a fairly easy trail we came 
to the mouth of a little valley whence we could see some twenty- 
five miles to the south a range of dark hills running east and west, 
but nowhere any signs of human habitations. All the hills 
traversed to-day appeared to be of limestone formation, and graz- 
ing was fairly good, the grass just beginning to sprout. 

It turned out on inquiry to-day that the cook has not only 
been stealing from my little supply of food but that he has 
repeatedly robbed the others during the night of some of their 
provisions. All our supplies are now exhausted, we ate the last 
mouthful to-night, now we will have to get along as best we can 
on tea, and then, if we do not meet Drupa, we shall kill a horse; 
fortunately we have two which are no longer able to carry loads. 
With the meat we shall be able to get along for quite a while, 
fifteen or twenty days anyhow, long enough to reach Shigatse. 
The jalang is more and more disagreeable; he will do nothing to 
assist us in camp, but sits warming himself over the fire, drinking 
tea and mumbling his prayers. 

July 6. — We had a hard day's work of it to get over twenty 
miles, the distance we try to cover daily. It began to rain shortly 

* 1 am still in doubt wiiether this was the Amdo ts'o-nak or not. From what 1 
was told later on this lake would appear to be to the south of the Tsacha tsang-bo 
ch'u. It may well be that my informants (Namru Tibetans who escorted me) inten- 
tionally misled me, as they were always very much afraid to give me any information 
about the country, and 1 had to get my information in the most roundabout way. 
According to Captain Bower {op. cit., 49) the Amdo ts'o-nak is considerably to the 
east-southeast of the one here referred to. See p. 229 and also under date oijuly 20. 



228 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

after leaving camp, and the rain kept pouring down till 3 p. m. 
Our route lay south-southeast over a gently undulating plain, the 
streams which crossed it running southwest by west to empty 
into the big lake we saw yesterday.* 

At 2 p. M. we came to a river flowing westward in a broad flat 
bed of mud and sand.f We had great trouble in getting across. 
The water flowed rapidly in a number of channels, and it took us 
two hours to lead the horses across, a man walking on either side 
of each pack-animal holding up the load. Several fell in the 
stream, or sunk in the quicksands and had to be unloaded in the 
river; fortunately my papers and instruments were got over dry. 

* This lake is called, 1 learnt later on, the Yirna ts'o, and is a soda lake (bul-tog 
ts'o). Its shape is surprisingly like that of the Caring Chho Lake of Capt. Bower, 
though the Yirna ts'o did not appear to me to be so large. It is impossible that 
Capt. Bower's Naksung Satu Lake and Caring Chho Lake, which in reality form 
but one, can be fed by the one small stream which he shows flowing into it from the 
west. It must receive a large supply of water from the east. The position Capt. 
Bower gives the Caring Chho is exactly that which the Namru assigned to the Tengri 
nor (Dolma Nam-ts'o), and a Tibetan told him (see his Diary of a Journey 
Across Tibet, p. 30) that that was its name, but he suspected that " the villain 
lied." 

t The name of this river is Tsacha tsang-bo ch'u. On some European maps it is 
figured (but too far north) as the Zacha Sangpo or Yargui tsumbu. The latter name 
looks as if it might be intended as a transcription of Yirna tsang-po, "the river of 
the Yirna (ts'o).'' There is no doubt in my mind that this river is the Hota Sangpo 
of Nain Singh, although he makes this river to issue Irom the Chargut Cho and flow 
eastward. Speaking of this region (which the Pundit did not traverse). Captain 
Trotter, in his Account of the Pundit's Journey from Leh to Lh'asa {Journ. Roy. 
Geo. Soc, XLVll., no), says: " It appears that the drainage from nearly all these 
lakes finds its way either into the Chargut Cho, a large lake said to be twice the 
size of any with which we are as yet acquainted in these parts, or into the Nak-chu- 
kha, or Hota Sangpo, a large river which issues from the Chargut Cho and flows 
eastward. The southern banks of this river are said to be inhabited at certain times 
of the year by shepherds from the De Namru district (north of De Cherik). The 
country to the north of the Nak-chu-kha is believed to be uninhabited. 

"The largest river crossed by the Pundit in this section of his travels was the 
Dumphu or Hota Sangpo, which receives the drainage of the southern slopes of the 
Targot-Gyakharma range of mountains, and flows into the Kyaring Cho, forming 
one of the numerous sources of the Nak-chu-kha." The Pundit imagined that the 
Kyaring Cho was connected with the Chargut Cho, but we now know by Capt. 
Bower's report that such is not the case. Col. Prjevalsky, Reisen am oberen Lauf 
des Gelben Flusses, 131, mentions a large river, of which he iiad heard tell, called 
the Satscha-Zampo, flowing into a lake called Mityk-dschan-su, which, he thinks, 
is identical with Nain Singh's Chargut ts'o. The other information given Prjevalsky, 
and referred to by him in the same paragraph, is certainly erroneous. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 229 

Just as we made camp, about a mile south of the last channel 
of the river, a violent storm of hail and rain swept down and 
drenched every article of clothing which we had so far kept dry, 
but shortly after the sun shown brightly, and we were able to dry 
our clothes and bedding before it set. 

About half a mile from where we have stopped, I found a 
deserted camp marked by low dung walls such as are built 
throughout northern Tibet inside of tents to keep off the wind; 
it cannot have been abandoned more than a few months ago. 
Drupa are certainly not far off, I should not be surprised if we 
fell in with some to-morrow. 

July 7. — We got off late; it had rained again in the night and 
we had to dry the tents before loading them on the mules. We 
rode in a southerly direction towards a col we could see in the 
range of hills before us, but we had not gone many miles before 
we saw a small flock of sheep and some yaks on the hillsides, 
and a little farther on we sighted some black tents half hidden in 
a sheltered nook. We kept on towards the hills and camped near 
some pools of water at the mouth of a valley* and about a mile 
away from some small black tents around which flocks of sheep 
were grazing. 

While we unloaded the mules, the Jalang and the Hsien-sheng 
rode over to one of the tents to ascertain where we were and see 
if they could not buy some food. After a while they returned 
and reported that they had met a man and two women, who in 
dress resembled the K'amba Tibetans, but whose language differed 
considerably from that which they were able to speak. They had 
had great difficulty in eliciting any information about the country 
or the road, but finally one of the women, to whom they gave a 
little mirror, some buttons and a thumb ring, had told them that 
we were three days' ride (on yak back) from the Tengri nor (/. e., 
about thirty miles), and only two days' ride west ol the Amdo 
ts'o-nak. They were very much frightened at our advent from the 
north, and only half believed the Jalang's story that we were Mar 
Sok (Eastern Mongol) pilgrims on our way to Tashil'unpo, who 
had lost our way, after the death of our guide some eighteen days 
north of here, while on the highroad to Nagch'uk'a, and that we 
had wandered this way in search of pasture for our animals and food 

* This valley is called by the Namru, Edjong. 



230 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

for ourselves. These people sold the men a sheep for the exorb- 
itant price of five rupees, and agreed to give them later on a rupee's 
worth of chura and butter, but v^ould not part with any tsamba, 
as they had barely enough for themselves. They gave the men 
tea and delicious sour milk {sho) to drink. 

The Jalang also learned that the big lake we had reached on the 
30th of June, was called the Teb-ts'ang ts'o,* and that the river 
we had crossed yesterday was the Tsacha tsangbo ch'u. At first 
he had been unable to elicit this information, the man had said 
that we could have no good motive for wanting to know the 
names of the rivers and mountains of the country. These people 
begged my men not to mention to anyone they might hereafter 
meet, that they had sold them anything or had even spoken to 
them, as there were very strict orders forbidding their having 
anything to do with strangers. They repeatedly asked the men if 
there were any foreigners in their party, and seemed much relieved 
when told that there were none. They said that Lh'asa and Tas- 
hil'unpo were both twenty days' ride from here, traveling on yak 
back, and that they did all their trading at the former city. They 
belonged to the Namru tribe, and the Amdo tribe lived to the east 
of them. The most disagreeable bit of information my men 
brought back was that these people were under the rule of Lh'asa. f 

The sheep was soon butchered, and in less than an hour the men 
were all feasting on the boudins i^chang-tzu) they love so to make 
with the liver, heart, lights, intestines, etc., well seasoned with 

*0r Chib chang ts'o, as the name was pronounced later on by the Namru Deba 
and the Nagch'u Ponbo. 

t The earliest mention I have found of this tribe of Namru is in Capt. Trotter's Report 
of Nain Singh's journey, referred to above. The Pundit says that the country inhab- 
ited by the Chang pa ("Northerners") is subdivided into the following districts, 
"designated successively from west to east: Nakchang Gomnak, Nakchang Doha, 
Yakpa Ngocho, Yikpa Jagro, De Cherik, De Tabaraba and De Taklung, which latter 
lies immediately to the north of the Namcho Lake." {Op. cit., p. 108.) All the 
local chiefs, he goes on to say, "are subordinate to the two Jongpons of Senja 
Jong, a place of considerable importance lying to the east of the Nakchang Doha 
district, and containing from eighty to a hundred houses." {Ibid., p. 109.) The 
Pundit also makes mention of a Nakchang Ombo or Pembo, to the west of the 
Nakchang Gomnak, where the religion is different from that professed by other tribes 
of this region. {Ibid., p. 107.) The word Pembo is Bonbo, and the religion 
referred to is that called Bon or Bonboism. See Land of the Lamas, 217-218. 
I had supposed that all the Bonbo tribes of Northern Tibet lived in the Jya de, which 
province I traversed later on. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 231 

onions. I had no appetite for food, the starving I had gone 
through for the last month had taken all desire for it out of me, 
but 1 expect 1 will be able to coax it back in a day or so. 

July 8. — The Hsien-sheng and the Jalang went again this 
morning, and a little ahead of the rest of us, to get the chura and 
butter the Namru had promised to sell them, and which they 
would not give them yesterday as it was the 15th of the moon, a 
day on which they neither buy nor sell. They also wanted to 
trade one of our worn out ponies for a fresh one. 1 followed 
slowly after with the pack mules, and, stopping near the tent, got 
off my pony to talk with the people and see if my men had finished 
their trading. They had found the Namru's suspicions fully 
aroused, he had refused to let them have anything, either chura, 
butter or even civil words, saying he thought we were foreigners, 
and, if we were, he and his tribe would kill us all, for that was 
what the Lh'asa government* had ordered them to do. When I 
spoke to him he only answered "Go away, I will have nothing 
to do with you," and turning around he entered his tent and called 
the women in. 

We pushed on up the valley and soon reached the top of the 
range. On its southern side was another broad valley ten or 
twelve miles in length and three from north to south, and beyond 
was yet another range of hills. To our left, some six miles 
away, appeared a lake probably two or three miles from north to 
south and eight miles from east to west; this I was told later in 
the day was the Namru ts'o. 

In the valley before us were six or eight tents, each with a little 
flock of sheep and some yaks grazing round it. We stopped near 
one about two miles below the summit to ask the road, and found 
that there were Lh'asa traders in it who had tsamba, butter, flour, 
etc., for sale; so I camped about a mile away in the hope of buy- 
ing at once a good supply of food and striking out again in a 
southwesterly direction before any measure could be taken to 
stop me. 

All my men, with the exception of the Hsien-sheng are very 
much excited and frightened, the Jalang and I had a big row, and 
I ordered him out of the camp. For the last fortnight his insolence 

*The Tibetan term is Deba djong. Capt. Bower is wrong in calling it "The 
Deva Zhung's territory," as this word is not the title of a man, but means the gov- 
ernment of Lh'asa, the territory under Lh'asa rule. 



232 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

and laziness have steadily increased. 1 have had to rely solely on 
the Hsien-sheng, who fortunately never wavers in his loyalty and 
devotion to me. When the Hsien-sheng went later in the after- 
noon to get the flour, tsamba, etc., the traders had agreed to sell, 
they put off giving it to him until to-morrow, and only let him 
have about a bushel of tsamba, enough for perhaps a week. 

The only person who has come to my camp has been a poor 
man who lives in a miserable little ragged tent about a quarter of 
a mile from us. He volunteered to guide me to Shigatse for 
twenty rupees and a pony. He said that on leaving this place we 
would travel for four days through an uninhabited country, after 
which we should find Drupa, more and more numerous as we 
advanced, all the way to Shigatse.* He said that in ten days we 
ought to make the trip. He denied the story that there were 
foreigners at Shigatse, but relieved my men's anxiety about their 
personal safety by telling them that there was a Chinese garrison 
and Chinese officials there. 

It now looks as if we might reach Shigatse, or at all events get 
so near it that the Tibetans will have to send us on to India. Two 
things are sure, 1 will not go back the way 1 have come, and which- 
ever way I go 1 shall be able to do some useful work. 

* Capt. Bower heard, when to the west of Namru de, that " From Namru a road 
runs to Lh'asa, by which it would be possible to go straight into the sacred city 
without meeting a soul." Op. cit., 32. 




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JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 233 



PART IV. 
From Namru to Ch'amdo. 



July p. — The fate of everyone who has tried to get into Tibet 
has overtaken me. This morning by daylight a number of well- 
armed Tibetans came to camp and said that they feared some of 
my party ^txt p'yling (foreigners), and that they begged us to 
remain camped where we were until their Deba could come, 
examine us and see whether we could proceed on our journey or 
not. So stringent were the orders from Deba-djong (Lh'asa) that 
if they were to let a foreigner pass through their country, they 
would all be beheaded. The speaker of the party, who was the 
headman of the district, asked to see me, and we talked for awhile 
very pleasantly. He asked me where I was from, where 1 was 
going, etc., etc., and said that he did not know whether I was a 
p'yling or a Mongol, that he had never seen any of the former, 
but he did not believe that they were like me. 

I thought it advisable to comply with the request to remain here ; 
if I refused and pushed on at once, it would but confirm their 
suspicions and they could easily stop me. As it is, the guide who 
offered his services yesterday, now refuses to go with me unless 
the Deba says he may. I told the headman I would remain 
camped here until the day after to-morrow (nth), but that if his 
Ponbo were not here by that time, I would proceed southward 
and that he could overtake me if he saw fit so to do. 

The Mongols are terribly frightened, they firmly believe that 
their last day has come. The Jalang complains of violent pains in 
his stomach and will not eat, Panti has passed the day listlessly 
blowing the bellows, and the little lama Zangbo has been reading 
his prayers with wild energy, a thing he had quite forgotten to do 
during the journey. The Chinese with their usual stolidity and 



234 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

Moslem fatalism have been eating the whole day, occasionally 
saying the one to the other that no one can escape his fate. 

The headman sent me a sheep, milk, chura and butter, enough 
for the day, and said he would keep me supplied until the Deba's 
arrival, but he would not accept pay for anything, as that was 
against the orders he had received. 

In the afternoon a tent was put up two hundred yards from mine 
and about twenty men settled themselves in it as a guard. During 
the whole day men came riding in from every direction, but more 
especially from the east and southeast. They were all very polite 
and jolly and each one whispered to me, when he thought he was 
not being observed, that they were only carrying out the orders 
of Lh'asa. 

It is an anxious moment ; I will fight hard not to go to Nagch'uk'a, 
but I fear the whole matter will be referred to Lh'asa and that 1 
will be delayed here for a long while. 

The dress of the people is exactly like that of the K'amba of 
northeast Tibet, but the gowns {ch'ubas) are mostly of fine purple 
pulo, only the very poor people wearing sheepskin ones. The 
women wear no ornaments on their hair, which is plaited in in- 
numerable little braids hanging over the shoulders and down to the 
waist where they are held together by a black ribbon. Many of 
the men have a half Tibetan, half Chinese coiffure, a big queue, 
usually of false hair and ornamented with coral and glass beads, 
finger rings, etc., and which hangs down their back or is twisted 
around the head ; the rest of their hair hangs in a tangled mass 
about their heads, cut over the eyes in a fringe. None wear any 
head covering, except when riding, when they have great Korean 
shaped hats covered with white cotton and lined with red cloth. 
Physically they are of light build, men and women of about the 
same height, five feet four inches, to five feet eight inches — I saw 
one man of this latter height — with oval faces, sharp pointed 
chins, rather straight eyes, hair not very abundant and generally 
wavy. Their noses are more prominent than with the Mongols 
and frequently with large ends, though some have aquiline and 
thin ones. Their feet are small as are also the calves of their legs. 
Their skins are smooth, hairless and dry, the teeth strong but very 
uneven and none have beards; they pluck out with pincers 
{chyam-ts'er), which all carry hanging to their belts, the few hairs 
which grow on their faces. The complexion of the people is not 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 235 

much darker than that of the Mongols, but all are very much burnt 
by constant exposure. I noticed a great many among them pitted 
with smallpox marks. 

The flour and tsamba the Lh'asa traders had promised to sell us 
are not forthcoming; they told the Hsien-sheng this evening that 
they were afraid to deliver them till the Deba arrived. The conse- 
quence is that we are absolutely at the mercy of these people; 
without food for more than a couple of days, with no guide, worn 
out ponies and lame mules, no possibility of buying anything or 
exchanging our animals for fresh ones; we can do nothing but 
make the best possible terms with the chief when he comes. 

I picked up from the people to-day in conversation that the 
Namru belong to the Nyima sect,* and that, besides their own 
chief or Deba, they have residing among them officers sent from 
Lh'asa. They say that it takes five days riding to reach Lh'asa 
and ten or twelve to reach Shigatse; they do all their trading at 
the former place. Tea is very expensive here; a brick of the 
gongma chupa kind,! worth one rupee at Ta-chien-lu, is worth 2 
taels here; but very little of it is to be found, only the coarsest 
quality of "wood tea " is used. They drink a great deal of milk, 
both cold and hot, sweet and sour, in which they mix their tsamba. 
When tea is drunk, they put a pinch of tsamba in the pot to flavor it. 

I heard that the Wang of the Torgot Mongols was stopped here 
the year before last when on his way to Lh'asa, and only allowed 
to proceed after his passport had been sent there and found to be 
en rtgle.X I believe that orders have been issued to every person 
living near the Tibetan frontier, under the severest penalties for 
disobedience (though I don't believe a word about cutting off the 

* Old lamaist or red capped sect. Its principal strongholds are Sii<kim, Bhutan 
and parts of Ulterior Tibet. See Emil Schlagintweit, Buddhism in Tibet, "ji. 

fOn the different varieties of brick tea, see Land of the Lamas, ■2'j'S>. 

X Bonvalot's advance south appears to have also been arrested in the Namru 
country. See H. Bower op. cit., 49. Bonvalot himself makes no mention of this 
tribe or country in the published narrative of his journey, De Paris au Tonkin d 
travers le Tibet inconnu. Can the Torgots of whom I heard speak be those 
mentioned in this latter's work (p. 154 and 240) ? It appears probable. The des- 
cription Bonvalot gives of the Tengri nor (or whatever lake his Namtso may turn 
out to be, for he had it only on native authority that it was the Namtso, and both 
Bower and I were assured that a Namtso was in quite a different position) does not 
at all agree with Nain Singh's mjourn. Roy. Geog. Sac, XLIV, 322 et seq. The 
words Namtso and Jyamts'o, the latter meaning " lake," are easily confounded. 



236 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

heads of those who disregard the orders, probably a heavy fine 
would be the penalty), to report at once to the nearest chief the 
passage of any suspicious looking traveler. 



July 10. — Men have been coming in all day; they are camped 
in four large tents. Among them are three officials from Lh'asa, 

in semi-Chinese dress, long brown broad- 
cloth gowns and turned up brown felt hats 
with gold lace edging; they wear a very 
pretty long gold pendant in the left ear, 
in which is set a big pearl and some tur- 
quoises. These officials, Nyerpa (stewards) 
of the Tale lama, and now in Namru de 
collecting the tithes, came to my camp and 
begged me to go back by the way I had 
come, saying that they would all be beheaded 
if 1 did not. I told them that I had no desire 
to travel on Lh'asan territory, that I had only 
come here because 1 had no more food. In 
a few days 1 would go westward and leave 
their territory. I deferred discussing the 
question of my movements till "the Big 
Chief" {Fdnbo ch'enpo) arrived on the mor- 
row. I added that as 1 knew the Tibetans 
were kind hearted, I felt sure they would 
not purposely put me to any inconvenience, 
delay or lengthen my journey by forcing me 
to take a roundabout road to Jyagar (India), 
where my presence was impatiently awaited. 
They said they would supply me with 
everything 1 desired, food, fresh horses and 
mules, etc., etc., if I would only leave their 
country at once. I said that under no cir- 
cumstances would I go back bv the way 1 had 
come. They then suggested that I should go 
to Nagch'uk'a and take the highroad to China and thence to India. 
I told them that, as 1 was traveling with a passport from the 
Chinese government, no one could control my movements but the 
Chinese Amban, that I would go to Lh'asa to discuss the matter 
with him. This threat frightened them very much. They said 




EARRING WORN BY 

TIBETAN OFFICERS. 

(Full Size.) 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 237 

Lh'asa was more than a month's journey from here, that brigands 
infested the road, that the Amban had gone to Ch'i-Iing to discuss 
with the p'ylings the Sikkim business. They appeared very 
anxious that this business should not get into the hands of the 
Chinese, whom they all seemed to fear and dislike very much. 

At all events we are revelling in the fleshpots of Tibet; sour 
milk, cream, butter, mutton, wheaten cakes (^palS) have been 
given us in abundance, and we can eat, drink, sleep and bask in 
the sun to our heart's content. The weather is lovely though it 
seems rather warm. The rest is doing us good and things take 
a brighter aspect on a full stomach. I will insist on going south- 
west on leaving here, although the Nyerpa swore to-day that 
there was no trail leading in that direction. 1 fancy it will take 
some time to settle matters satisfactorily; Tibetans do everything 
"slowly, slowly" {KalS, kali). 

Jtily II. — To-day has been a most trying one ; the Ponbo ch'enpo 
arrived with a numerous escort. He is a good-natured looking 
man of the pure Drupa type, and perhaps the least well dressed 
of any of the chiefs I have seen, save that his purple pulo gown 
is of beautifully fine texture. He called on me, accompanied by 
the Lh'asa Nyerpa, and we discussed my plans. Seeing that I 
would not go back to the desert to the north, they suggested that 
I go to Nagch'uk'a to discuss the subject of my future movements 
with the high officer in command there, but they said that they 
must first get permission for me to go to Nagch'uk'a. They had, 
in anticipation of my going that way, sent a courier there yester- 
day and expected him back in three days. Then I proposed 
sending the Hsien-sheng to Lh'asa to see the Amban,* but they 
stoutly refused to allow him to go. As to going to Shigatse, they 
refused point blank to allow me to undertake the journey, or 
rather, they said that, unless 1 went to Nagch'uk'a or awaited 

* Bonvalot speaks of his conferences with the Amban near the shores of the 
Niamtso. He describes him as a blue buttoned Mandarin of pure Tibetan race, not 
even speaking Chinese, and who treated the travelers apparently as his superiors in 
rank. Bonvalot's interlocutor was most certainly not the Amban, who is always a 
high Chinese official, wearing a coral button and of Manchu origin, and who quite as 
certainly would not have come that far in the dead of winter to question three 
unknown foreigners. The official was probably an officer from one of the stations 
between Nagch'uk'a and Lh'asa. The "/a amban " and " ia lama" who came 
to his camp later on {De Paris au Tonkin, p. 238 et seq.) probably came from 
Lh'asa, but even this ta lama, whoever he was, was only a Tibetan civil official. 
See Bonvalot, op. cit., 268 et seq. 



238 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

here further orders, they would give me no supplies or fresh pack 
animals and that I would have to get on the best way 1 could, 
after going back to the north side of the Tsacha tsangbo ch'u, 
which marks the boundary of Lh'asa territory to the north. Perhaps 
if I were to go to Nagch'uk'a I could get permission to go back to 
China by the highroad viA Larego, Shobando, Ch'amdo, etc, and 
not have to follow the "tea road " taken by Bonvalot. 

The Deba asked me to come to his tent in the afternoon, and I 
found there all the chiefs and people assembled, the latter squatting 
around the outside. Seeing my impatience to proceed, the Chief 
offered to have me guided to Nagch'uk'a by a little used trail, not 
on Lh'asa territory but running along the right bank of the Tsacha 
tsangbo ch'u and the foothills of the Dang la. It would take, he 
said, six or seven days to reach the chang lam at a point about a 
day's ride north of Nagch'uk'a. 1 agreed finally to this; it will 
take me through unexplored country. It does not make much 
difference after all which way 1 go, though it is very disappointing 
not to be able to carry out my original plan — but who ever does 
in life.? I am not twenty miles from the Tengri nor; I am told it 
can be seen from the top of the hills to the south of this valley, 
but I will never see the lake.* 1 am ten days from Shigatse and 
not more than twenty-five from British India and six or seven 
weeks from home, but it will be four or five months before 1 reach 
there now by the long route 1 shall have to travel. Tien ming, 
"it is Heaven's decree." 

Panti and the Jalang have refused to go any farther with me; 
they will go back to the Ts'aidam by the road by which we came. 
The lao-han goes back with the Mongols. I have given the old 
man twenty-five taels and some odds and ends in the way of 

* See note p. 228. Some Tibetan works give the name of tiiis lai<e as Gnam 
mts'o p'yag-mo, or Gnam mts'o p'yug-mo. The latter name means " Wealthy 
woman, heavenly lake." The name Dolma Nam-ts'o signifies " the heavenly lake of 
Dolma." Dolma is the Indian goddess Arya Tara; in Tibet this name is quite as 
common among women as Mary is with Christians. Nain Singh says that the lake is 
called Jang Namcho chidmo, that it is 15,190 feet above sea level, that it took him 
fifteen days to travel around it, that there are a number of gombas on its shore, and 
that a stream called the Nai ch'u flows into it from the east. He also adds that 
junipers grow on its banks at Langdang, at the northeast corner of the lake. Journ. 
Roy. Geo. Sac, XLIV, 319-322. On the fossil shells of this lake, see the same 
work, 327. Mr. Oldham, Superintendent of the Geological Survey of India, who 
examined them, thought them not older than cretaceous and probably nummilitic. 
The name given the lake by Nain Singh is probably, according to my system of 
transcription, Chang Nam-ts'o chyug-mo (p'yug-mo). 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 239 

outfit, and he is filled with fear lest \\\s, compagnons de route should 
kill him for his wealth. I am truly delighted to get rid of these 
Mongols, but I feel sorry for the poor little lama, Zangbo, who had 
hoped to get to Lh'asa, and who now sees all his hopes blighted 
and who will probably have to go with me to Ta-chien-lu. 

July 12. — The day has been well occupied amusing the Namru, 
who, now that the question of my movements has been satisfac- 
torily settled, are as friendly as can be, though they will sell me 
nothing, refusing the most tempting offers for various ornaments, 
and odds and ends I want for my collections. We talked 

"Of shoes, and ships, and sealing wax, 
Of cabbages, and kings. 
And why the sea was boiling hot, 
And whether pigs have wings." 

They expressed their astonishment at finding a p'yling so 
friendly, and not the terrible creature they say the lamas have 
always described them as being. They have shown me the 
greatest kindness and politeness, not a rough or disagreeable 
remark has passed their lips. They have given me every descrip- 
tion of food they have, and all the little delicacies they delight in. 
Time and again they have apologized for having to stop me, "but, 
they said, we are not our own masters, hnl DSba-djong-gi miser" 
("the serfs of Lh'asa "). They said openly that, as to themselves, 
they would be delighted to see foreigners visit their country, 
bringing curious and pretty things for them to buy, but Lh'asa 
would not allow it. The people of that place loved foreign money 
and foreign goods, but would not admit p'ylings among them. 
The Lh'asa people were bad and cruel, they added; should they 
(the Namru) disobey them, they would cut off their heads in a trice. 

The Deba presented me with a nice pony, but it was with great 
difficulty that I persuaded him to accept a k'atag* in acknowledg- 

*The use of ceremonial scarfs dates from remote antiquity in Asia; we find mention 
of them in old Buddhist works and persons in the act of presenting them are often figured 
in ancient Buddhist bas-reliefs in India. The custom appears even to have spread, for 
awhile, to China, thus we read in Mendoza that when he was at Fu chou in 1575, 
the Viceroy " commanded in his presence to put about the necks of the friars, in 
manner of a scarfe, to eyther of them sixe pieces of silke, and unto the souldiers, their 
companions, and unto Omoncou and Suisay, each of them foure pieces, and to everye 
one of their servants two a piece * * * so with the silke about their neckes, and 
with the branches in their hands, they returned out of the hall and downe the staires 
the way they came, and so through the court into the streetes." Mendoza, History 
of China, II, 83. (Hakluyt Soc. edit.) 



240 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

ment of his gift, and tiie three Lh'asa Nyerpa stoutly refused the 
scarfs I oflFered them. The people are very fond of foreign curios 
and goods. One man had a red flowered chintz waistcoat; another 
a flannel border to his gown, and not a few British navy and army 
buttons on theirs. 

1 gave the two Mongols one of my tents, three ponies, sufficient 
tea and tsamba to last them six weeks, a kettle, etc., etc., enough 
to enable them to travel comfortably back to the Ts'aidam. The 
lao-han begged to be allowed to accompany me; he said he was 
afraid to go back with the Mongols who might rob him and kill 
him, and I agreed to take him to Ta-chien-lu whence he can reach 
Hsi-ning easily and at little expense. We are to leave here to- 
morrow; three men will escort me, and two others will see the two 
Mongols across the Tsacha tsangbo ch'u. We shall all part the best 
of friends; the three Lh'asa officials are the only ones who have 
been sullen and made no friendly advances. 

July ij. — We broke up camp this morning and retraced our 
steps as far as the Tsacha tsangbo ch'u, camping near the right 
bank of that river on some little sand dunes, and here at about 
nightfall 1 was joined by the escort of Namru men who are to 
accompany me as far as the Nagch'uk'a road. There are ten men 
instead of three in the escort under the orders of the same head- 
man who requested me to stop in the Namru valley to there await 
the coming of the Deba. 

It was with a heavy heart that 1 retraced my steps; it was the 
relinquishing of a much cherished project which I had until within 
a few days hoped I would have been able to accomplish. It would, 
however, have been sheer folly to have tried to push on to 
Shigatsd in the face of the opposition of the Namru, with hut three 
Chinese to accompany me and only provisions enough for a day 
or two. 

Before leaving this morning the Deba sent me another pony as a 
present; and I was able to slip into the hand of the owner of a big 
tent near which we had camped in the Namru valley, and who 
had to supply, by order of the Deba, all the mutton, tea, tsamba, 
etc., which had been given to me as " presents " — the value of his 
goods. He was of course immensely pleased, lolled out his tongue 
as far as he could and wished me many times " dSmo p'Sbs, demo 
fSbs" ("go in peace"). 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 241 

The lower classes here, when saluting superiors, are in the habit 
of bending the knee very low, putting the right hand beside the 
right cheek and the left hand under the elbow of the right arm, 
at the same time sticking out the tongue. 

1 know all the men in the escort, and, now that they are no 
longer under their chiefs eyes, they are all eager to trade, and to 
show me any courtesy in their power. Each man has brought 
with him a huge pair of saddle-bags filled with cakes of sweet 
cream cheese {pima)* chura, flour, butter, dried mutton {sha 
karn), sour cream {tarak), wheaten cakes {palS), etc., etc., 
which he wants to exchange for buttons, thumb-rings, Japanese 
lacquer bowls, and such like treasures. They told me again that 
their lamas had always made out foreigners to be bad men, that if 
they should ever meet any, they were to give them what they 
required, take nothing from them, and make them go away; but 
I had talked courteously to them, paid for all I had got, and they 
hoped that foreigners would come this way again, if they were 
only all like me and their lamas did not oppose their coming. 

1 now learn that the big lake into which the Tsacha tsangbo 
ch'u empties is called Zirna ts'o and that it is a "soda lake" 
{butok ts'o). We had quite a violent hail storm to-day at 2 p. m. 
and at 4.30 p. m., a heavy downpour of rain. 

/ufy 14.. — We crossed the river this morning during a violent 
thunder storm, at the ford used by the Namru; the Tsacha flows 
here in two branches, and the water is about four feet deep. We 
turned our faces northward and struck out over an undulating plain 
on which was here and there a pool of brackish water, and after 
a short ride camped at the foot of the hills, by the river bank, at a 
point where the river, which comes from the east-northeast, takes 
a bend southward as far as where we crossed it earlier in the day. 

My escort looks very picturesque, the prettily shaped, though 
very undersized ponies nearly disappearing under the big saddles 
and bright saddle cloths, the riders in purple gowns and cloth- 
topped boots reaching to the knee, which sticks out bare above 
them. Their long hair falls around their faces, and their high 
white hats {shara) are cocked on one side to shade them from the 
sun or wind. Long matchlocks swing across their backs, the 

* In Koko-nor Tibetan called dima, and in Mongol eurna. Chinese call it nai 
pH-tzu. It is brought to Peking every winter by the Mongols and sold in the Nei 
kuan. 



242 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 



stocks and locks wrapped in pieces of bright puio or perhaps a 
marmot skin {chyi pags). At their waists hang red leather bullet 
bags, pouches for powder and priming-horns, needle cases and 
short knives, and each one has a long, straight sword passed 
through his belt, the right hand resting constantly on its hilt. They 
have already proved themselves good-hearted, obliging fellows, 
taking down and putting up my tent, bringing me fuel, saddling 
and unloading the ponies, and have, to their own inconvenience, 
given little Zangbo one of their own ponies to ride, and made a 
collection among themselves for him, supplying him, from their 
own small stores, with enough food for a month. 

These Namru eat won- 
derfully little; this morning 
before starting they drank 
two cups of tea, which they 
made in little earthenware 
pots, each man having his 
own, and ate a little mush 
of chura, tsamba and butter. 
In preparing their tea they 
put a little soda in the pot, 
and let it boil for quite a 
while. This evening the 
first thing they did, while 
two or three were making 
the fire and the tea was 
cooking, was to drink a few 
cups of sour cream (tarak), 
and this they tell me is their 
invariable preliminary to a 
meal, their zakuska. This tarak they carry in little goat skin bags 
on which the hair has been left and which contain about half a 
gallon. They squeeze the bag and make the contents come out 
through the skin of the leg, which makes an excellent neck to this 
primitive bottle. Their dried mutton they soften in their tea, but 
they eat very little of it. a few mouthfuls at a meal suffice them. 
The only thing in which these men, as well as all those we have 
so far met, show great suspicion is in invariably refusing to 
partake of any food or drink prepared by me, nor will they use 
any other but their own puru (little wooden bowl). They are 




WOODEN SNUFF-BOX WITH INTERIOR SIEVE. 

(Lhasa.) 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 243 

afraid of being poisoned. This mode of getting rid of a person 
is a well known weakness of the Lh'asa people. 

The Namru snuff enormous quantities of tobacco and, like the 
K'amba, they are not neat in taking it, smearing their noses and 
faces in the operation. Smoking is very rarely indulged in by 
them. Their snuff-horns are like those of the P'anaka, though a 
few own the peculiar snuff box with interior sieve made in 
Lh'asa. 

Nearly every male I have seen in this country has curly hair, 
while the Lh'asa people have straight. I take the Namru and in 
fact all the Drupa, or tent dwelling Tibetans, to represent a much 
purer, if not the pure, Tibetan race; their language, which has 
retained many archaic forms, now lost in the Lh'asan dialect, or 
only to be found in the written language in the shape of mute or 
Superposed letters, would seem to corroborate this opinion. "But 
this is another story." 

July 15. — We rode all day up the right bank of the Tsacha 
ch'u in an east-northeasterly direction, crossing occasionally some 
little affluent coming down from the hills. Though we passed 
many old camps, we only saw one tent and that on the left bank 
of the river and in the Amdo ts'o-nak district, according to the 
escort men. The country was well covered with grass, the soil 
gravelly, the hills on either side of the river of limestone and slate. 
We rode along very rapidly, stopping only after about eighteen 
miles for lunch in a little valley opening on to the river where 
we found abundance of sweet spring water. While here the 
inevitable hail and rain storm swept over us, and we had to 
wait an hour or so before we could dry our things and load the 
mules. 

We camped for the night on a muddy and marshy plain near a 
good-sized river which, coming from the west, empties into the 
Tsacha tsangbo ch'u a few miles to the east of us. We were 
compelled to come this way, which is not the trail usually 
followed but a roundabout one, on account of the muddy state 
of the ground along the river side. The constant heavy rains at 
this season of the year make traveling in these parts slow, 
wearisome and difficult, for, to add to the fatigues of the journey, 
fuel (dung of course) is very scarce, as nearly all is soaked by 
the rain. The soil is everywhere gravel and clay, and one sinks 



244 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

into it knee deep. Riding is out of the question, the horses have 
as much as they can do to pull themselves through the mud, 
though they carry only a few pounds of the loads of the pack 
mules, that are even more worn out than they. 

Before we could get camped another violent rain storm overtook 
us, and we had to go to bed without our tea and with only a little 
pima; but we are better off than the Tibetans, we four have a tent 
in which we can keep pretty dry — though it is now full of holes 
and cannot keep out the cold — but the Namru have none, they 
wrap themselves in their saddle blankets and lie down shivering 
in the wet and mud. 

July i6. — Crossing the stream near which we had camped, we 
followed up the course of the Tsacha tsangbo through a broad 
grass-covered valley. It would be more correct to say that we 
followed up the course of the northern branch of the Tsacha, for 
a few miles east-southeast of our camp of last night, a stream 
quite as large as the Tsacha itself, and which comes from the east, 
empties into it. 

A mile or so beyond our camp we passed some hot springs near 
the bank of the stream, but I could not get to them to take the 
temperature of the water, as the ground was too boggy. Six 
miles before making camp we crossed a large clear stream flowing 
into the Tsacha from out the mountains on our left (north). 

1 learned that my guards have orders to take me to the Hsi-ning 
road, seven days from where we now are. Here we will be on 
the border of the Jya-de {Rgya sde) i. <?., "Chinese province." 
They will then point out the road to Nagch'uk'a and the direction 
of the nearest Drupa, but they will not venture near the tents of 
the Jyade, with whom they are not on friendly terms.* 

I offered the headman some money if he would consent to take 
me by a more direct route to Nagch'uk'a, but he said he knew of 
none, and even the one we are following is badly known, and 
hardly ever followed. 

* Nain Singh speaking of the people living near the western shore of the Tengri 
nor says they are attacked by robbers said to come from a district called Jamaata De, 
which lies to the north. Jamaata De is said not to be under Lh'asa, and the inhab- 
itants consequently plunder the Lh'asa districts whenever they are in want, as they 
often are. Journ. Roy. Geo. Soc , XLIV, 320. His Jamaata De is Rgya-mi Atag 
Sde, " The Chinese Atag district " on the highroad to Nagch'uk'a; it was traversed 
by Capt. Bower (see Op. sup. cit., 51). 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 245 

From where we have camped we can see to the north a show- 
covered range, the Dang la, I suppose. The nearer one gets to this 
great chain the worse the weather becomes. These mountains 
arrest the moisture laden clouds coming from the southeast, hence 
the deluge of rain and the boggy state of this whole region during 
half the year. The Dang la and its continuation to the east, mark 
the farthest point north to which the monsoons reach. This 
evening, for the first time since we left the Namru valley, the sky 
was unclouded for a half hour, and I was able to take a few sextant 
observations. 

July ly. — The last branch of the Tsacha* was forded a few 
miles beyond camp, and after crossing a low range of soft, gravelly 
hills, we entered the basin of the Chang fang ch'u, which, coming 
from out the mountains to the north at a point far to the east of 
us, flows south as far as we could make out its course. Two 
large streams and a number of streamlets empty into it a little 
to the south of our line of march. The soil was everywhere 
boggy, the horses sunk into the soft gravel at every step, and we 
had to lead them most of the way. After crossing the second 
large feeder of the Chang fang ch'u, we found the ground abso- 
lutely bare, and had to push on till dark before we could find a spot 
where our animals could pick up a little grass. Just as we made 
camp and before 1 could get the tent up, a terrific thunder storm 
came down from the mountains to the north, and again the poor 
Tibetans had to wrap themselves in their blankets and go supper- 
less to sleep. 

We saw to-day a herd of yaks, the first we have noticed south 
of the Dang la. They started on a dead run as soon as they saw 
us, and it was a fine sight to see them dash into the wide river 
and tear across it, the spray nearly hiding them from our view. 

* From Capt. Bower's map we learn that this important river has its source in about 
Lat. 32° 45 Long. E. 90°, at an altitude of about 16,000 feet. Where 1 left this 
river, not over thirty-five miles from its source, its altitude was approximately 15,400 
feet above sea level. It certainly does not flow as far southeast as Capt. Bower's 
map shows, and the snow peak, around the east side of which it is there made to 
flow, is quite a distance south of the river. Capt. Bower calls this river Chang Saki 
Sang po. Chang means " north, northern;" the word is written byang. His 
Sang chu is, 1 take it, my Chang t'ang ch'u in its upper course. See H. Bower, Op. 
cit., 47-48. 



246 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

The whole country through which we have traveled to-day is 
but a succession of pools and streams. I never saw such a soaked 
and reeking region in my life. 

July 18. — The storm of last night has turned the already muddy 
soil into a quagmire, and it took us all day to make about eight 
miles over a range of low hills and to ford the Chang fang river. 
At every step we took we sunk in the mud (a mixture of gravel 
and clay) up to our knees, and it was pitiable to see the poor mules 
tumbling down every few steps, unable to pull their tired legs out 
of the mire. Strange as it may appear the muddiest spots in this 
region are always to be found on the hillsides, all of which are of 
gravel. About eight inches below the surface is water, which, 
for some reason 1 have not as yet worked out, but probably on 
account of a hard substratum of clay, does not drain off. Along 
the river bottoms there is comparatively little mud; the ground 
there is sandy and firm. 

After resting for a couple of hours in the river bottom, where 
we found good grazing and plenty of sweet, clear water, we forded 
the river (the east branch of the Chang fang ch'u), which was 
up to the horses' bellies, and camped on the hills beyond, on that 
most uncomfortable of all camping grounds, tussocks of grass and 
holes full of water, such a place as only a duck could enjoy. 
The air to-day has been redolent with the odor of onions {allium 
senescens ?) ; the Tibetans eat them raw without even the addition 
of a little salt. During the day we had no rain, though very heavy 
clouds hung over the mountains to the north, but at 8 p. M., the 
heavens opened and the downpour began. Fortunately the grass 
is good and the horses and mules are, at least, enjoying themselves. 

July 19. — Another miserable, rainy day passed picking our way 
over tussocks of grass and holes of water a foot or two deep and 
as many wide. Water an inch deep is flowing in a sheet off the 
ground into innumerable lakelets and pools. So bad did traveling 
become, that we finally took to the bed of a stream and marched 
in it for miles with water to the horses' bellies; here we found 
solid ground on which to walk. An imperceptible ascent brought 
us to near the divide between the basin of the Chang fang ch'u 
and some other river to the east, where we camped on a tolerably 
level and dry bit of ground. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 247 

Near where we have camped I noticed old fireplaces and other 
signs that people inhabit this country at some season of the year; 
it is the highest inhabited spot we have yet met with, its altitude 
is not less than 16,200 feet above sea level. A bear, the third seen 
on the journey, came near the camp but not close enough to shoot. 
Animals of every description appear to be very rare south of the 
Dang la. 

I think we cannot now be more than five days' ride from 
Nagch'uk'a, though the Namru says it is ten. I have discovered 
that none of the escort have ever been over this trail before; they 
have heard tell that it was possible to reach the Nagch'uk'a road 
by this wa-y, and are trying the experiment with me. The only 
object their chief had in view in sending me this way was to keep 
me off Lh'asa territory, which does not extend north of theTsacha 
tsangbo ch'u. 

No dry argols are to be had to-night, and we have had to burn 
one of our pack saddles; fortunately we have not two hundred 
pounds of luggage all told and six mules to carry it, so we do not 
feel the loss. 

July 20. — I was glad to see to-day that our route continued in 
a southerly direction, for 1 have been fearing lest my escort should 
try to get me on to a road leading to the north side of the Dang la, 
where 1 know they would like to see me.* We crossed the divide 
about two miles beyond our camp of last night, and continued in 
a general east-southeasterly direction for about eighteen miles 
over tussocks of grass and water holes, and where these were 
not, there was mud a foot or more deep. To add to our misery 
it rained from 9 a. m. to 2 p. m. 

East of the divide all the streams we have crossed flow south. 
They are innumerable; we crossed two large ones within a few 
miles of each other, each one fifty to seventy-five feet wide and 
from two to three feet deep; down every little valley, though 
possibly not over three or four miles long, flows a big brook. 
We made about twenty miles to-day, but it was very hard work 
to get the mules and ponies along. From being constantly in the 
water and mud, their hoofs have become very soft, and the gravel 
has worn them away so that they are all footsore. 

* My route must have crossed Bower's here, very near his camp, 82 (November 
i2th, 1891). 



248 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

We passed by quite a number of old camps* and pulled down 
some of the dung walls to get dry fuel. Yak dung is the principal 
substance used in domestic architecture among the Drupa 
Tibetans. Besides being used to make low walls around the tents, 
as is also customary in K'amdo, the people here build little dome- 
shaped structures about five feet high and six feet in diameter 
with a small opening in the south side. In these they keep dry 
sheep's droppings and yak dung for fuel; they also put away in 
similar storehouses, of which there are a number around each tent, 
such of their belongings as they do not care to keep inside their 
dwelling. 

The Namru with me frequently whistle tunes, an unknown 
accomplishment among Mongols and an unusual one also in China. 
Their only occupation when in camp is twisting yarn or twirling 
their prayer wheels, but they assure me that when at home they 
(the men) weave the variegated stuff used for making boot tops, 
gun cases and such like things; they also weave their pretty garters. 
Weaving is, I consequently infer, not a drudgery among this 
people, if it were, it would be left to the women. 

July 21. — Our route to-day took a slightly more southerly direc- 
tion than heretofore. It led along what I suppose are the foothills 
(of sandstone chiefly) of the Dang la range, whose snowpeaks we 
have caught occasional glimpses of for the last four or five days. 
Two miles from camp we crossed a river flowing south-southeast. f 
Leaving its basin, we traveled along the flank of some hills trending 
southeast till we came to a pond about fifteen miles from our 

* When Capt. Bower passed through this district, which he was told was part of 
Amdo, he found nomads' tents scattered about the valleys. He speaks of a little lake 
here called the Chonak Chho ; I cannot believe that this is the Amdo ts'o-nak. My 
route here must have been considerably north of his; our routes were parallel all the 
way to the 1 ch'u (reached by Bower December 2d, '91, and by me on the nth 
August, '92), his being a little south of mine. 

t This river is the " large river," crossed by Capt. Bower lower down its course. 
According to information furnished him this river marks the western boundary of 
Jyade (his Giate). This is not absolutely inconsistent with what I was told, as this 
country — and all Tibet is in the same case for that matter — is divided up in the most 
confusing manner, one small district belonging to Lh'asa and the next to Jyade or 
some other country. Near this river Capt. Bower refers to a camp called Atak Thomar. 
His Atak is my Ara and Nain Singh's Jamaata (see p. 244, note). The latter's state- 
ment that the Atag are under Chinese rule is therefore corroborated by Capt. Bower. 
See also on the Yagara, p. 196 (June ist). 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 249 

camp of yesterday, and here we camped. From a little hillock 
near our camp of this evening, I saw a good-sized river coming 
out of the mountains to the north and flowing due south, and my 
guides told me that the Hsi-ning-Lh'asa road runs along its bank. 
The face of the country to-day was covered with tussocks of 
grass, with frequent patches of mud, and old camping places were 
very numerous. 

We stopped toward noon to-day to take tea and dry our clothes 
in the sun, which has at last made its appearance. The Namru, 
who for convenience of cooking are divided into two messes (this 
is a universal custom among Tibetans) of five men each, asked me 
to lunch with them, first with one party, then with the other. They 
showed themselves most excellent hosts, and were more communi- 
cative than 1 had heretofore found them. They told me that 
yesterday we had passed through the Ara district (the deserted 
camp we had seen belonged to people of that tribe), and that 
to-day we were south of the Yagara district, of which people I 
have previously spoken as inhabiting in times gone by, the mount- 
ains to the south of the Naichi gol.* To-morrow at an early hour 
we will reach a camp of the Jyade people on the highroad to 
Nagch'u. They will not venture that far, but will point out the 
road from the hill top and give us our bearings. They begged me 
not to mention, when I got to Nagch'uk'a, that I had been escorted 
all the way from Namru by them, for it would certainly get them 
in trouble. They asked me many questions about my country, 

* Can this tribe be a fraction of the Yegur tribe found between Lan-chou and 
Sa-chou (northwestern Kan-su) by Potanin — '' En suivant la grande route de Lan- 
tcheou a Sa-tcheou, M. Polanin a decouvert la peuplade appele Yegours, dont une 
partie (les Chara Ytgours) sont Turcs par la langue et par le type physique. Ces 
Chara Yegours habitent entre Kan-tcheou et Sa-tcheou." Deniker, Bull. Soc. An- 
thropologic de Paris, y Serie, X, 207. However this may be, Potanin's Yegours 
are the Huang Fan or " Yellow Fan-tzu " of the Chinese. From the following note by 
Prjevalsky it would appear that the Yegurs lived in the 17th century near the Koko- 
nor, probably west or southwest of it, and it is possible that, after the defeat referred 
to by him, a portion sought refuge in Tibet. He says that " a people of Tangutan 
race lived on the shores of Koko-nor called Yegurs, who professed Buddhism and 
belonged to the red-capped sect. These Yegurs were continually plundering the 
caravans of pilgrims on their way from Mongolia to Tibet, until the Oliuth prince 
Gushi-Khan, who ruled in northwestern Mongolia, marched an army to Koko-nor 
to subdue them. The Yegurs were partly exterminated, but some of them escaped 
to northwestern Kan-su, where they mixed with the other inhabitants." Mongolia, 
I, 151. This also corroborates Potanin's statement. 



250 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

how long it had taken me to get to Namru, about the sea and 
ships and our religion, and I managed to answer all their queries, 
— save, of course, the last one — quite satisfactorily. 

Towards dusk all the men of the escort came to my tent and 
each one made me a little present, some butter, chura, pima, dried 
mutton, or the like, all apologizing for the smallness of their gifts. 
Then the headman repeated what he had told me early in the day, 
they would take us to where we could see the Nagch'uk'a road 
and there leave us and start at once for home. I thanked them 
for their kindness, and then gave the headman four rupees and to 
each of the other men I gave two. They only accepted the money 
when we had all given a solemn promise that we would mention 
it to no one. These men have been as kind and considerate as 
possible, and I will always remember with pleasure the friendly 
spirit they showed to me and my party. They have been most 
attentive, and have invariably done whatever they could to lighten 
the discomforts of the journey. 

Little Zangbo has decided, after much persuasion on my part, to 
give us the slip as soon as we reach the highroad, and try and join 
the first party he sees going Lh'asaward. 1 gave him this evening 
ten rupees and filled his bag with tsamba and tea. 

We thought this evening while scanning the country to the 
east, that we discerned tents of Drupa some miles to the south- 
east, but not having field glasses we could not be sure of it. 
The Namru, by the way, have thought all along that my prismatic 
compass was a djansi, as they call a telescope, and were greatly 
astonished this evening when 1 explained the use of the compass 
{ch'yog-ta k'orlo) in surveying. 

July 22. — At day-light the Namru came to my tent and asked 
the Hsien-sheng to go with them a little way that they might 
show him the highroad, as they were in a great hurry to start for 
home and get far away from the Jyade country, where they did 
not feel in safety. After doing a little trading with my guides, 
we got on our horses and turned south, while they started west- 
ward, after a very liberal exchange of good wishes for a safe 
journey. 

We had not gone a mile before we saw three horsemen leading 
mules, and traveling south along the right bank of the river. 
Little Zangbo bade us a hasty good-bye and, taking his bag of food, 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 251 

hid himself in the hills, so as to prove an alibi if we ever came 
face to face again in Tibet, a most unlikely contingency. Riding 
on we joined the horseman, and I found to my horror that they 
were Tibetans coming from Kumbum, and that they belonged to 
the great caravan which leaves Tankar for Lh'asa every year in the 
fourth moon. Though we recognized each other — we had met 
at the fair at Kumbum — we all cut each other in the most approved 
fashion. 

We begged them to sell us a few horseshoe nails, as three of 
our mules were so sore footed they could hardly put one foot 
before the other, and we were glad to pay them at the exorbitant 
rate of a tanka for four nails. 

We learned from these men that we were on the Dang ch'u* 
(probably Prjevalsky's Yagra ch'u) and about a day and a halfs 
ride north of Nagch'uk'a. The river bottom, which is covered 
with fine grass, is about a mile and a half broad, and beyond it 
rise on either side hills a hundred feet or so high of gravel, red 
clay and pudding stone. We rode by several sections of the 
caravan, some camped in nooks in the hills, others on the river 
bottom, but all occupying huge white cotton tents, each large 
enough to accommodate thirty or forty men. No one paid any 
attention to us, and after going about fourteen miles we camped in 
a sheltered spot near the river where grazing was exceptionally 
fine. 

We had not got our tent up before two Tibetan soldiers and 
the man who had sold us the nails rode up, and asked us where 
we were going and from what place we had come. We said we 
had come from the Chang t'ang and were on our way to Ch'amdo. 
As they spoke a dialect different from any with which we were 
familiar, conversation proved so difficult (the man we had previ- 
ously met would not act as interpreter for fear it be imagined we 
were acquainted) that they jumped on their horses and rode off, 
returning in a very short time, however, with another man who 
understood the Lh'asa dialect, and could thus act as a spy on the 
one who could, but would not, talk with us. 

*A K 's Yagra Chu; the stream which flows into it from the west a 

couple of miles south of where I was camped he calls the Saung Chu. See Report 

on Explorations made by A K in 1S79-82, 38. The Khamlung La of 

this explorer is probably the western shoulder of Bumza shili. 



252 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

I explained my project to them, told them that I wanted a guide 
to Larego or Ch'amdo, also provisions, an escort and fresh pack 
animals and saddle ponies. I showed them my passport, although 
this document, written entirely in Chinese, was of no earthly value, 
save that the big red seal on it had an imposing aspect. I said I 
proposed going to Nagch'uk'a, the K'anpo at that place having 
been advised of my arrival by the Namru Deba. As I was " a big 
official" 1 could not, furthermore, discuss my movements or plans 
with them, and so 1 told them that, not wanting to do anything 
contrary to orders they might have received, I would wait where 
I was now camped until the 25th, so that their Deba or the 
Nagch'u Ponbo might have time to come and see me. 1 can afford 
to be accommodating, for I could not possibly get away from this 
place in less time, even if asked to continue my journey towards 
Lh'asa, so fatigued are the ponies and so lame are the mules. 
Several of the latter will probably die within a few days, or will 
have to be abandoned. 

Two Jyade men who came across the Dang ch'u (this river 
divides Lh'asa territory from Jyade, or Chinese governed territory), 
said that they would bring me a sheep in the morning. They said 
they were willing to sell me anything 1 wanted. The soldiers on 
this side, who are of the Sang-yi clan, refused to sell me anything, 
saying that they would beheaded if they did. These Jyade say 
there is a direct trail going from here to Ch'amdo and another to 
Jyakor (Jyakundo), where I was in 1889. 

From what 1 can gather the boundary of Lh'asa in this direction 
follows the highroad from the Dang la to Nagch'u, all the country 
to the east of this line being under Chinese jurisdiction.* 

We had a violent hailstorm from i to 1.30 p. M., but the rest of 
the day was very fine. From where we are camped we can see 
a dome-shaped mountain some twelve or fifteen miles south of us, 
and 1 learned that it is Mt. Bumza ; it seems to close the Dang 
ch'u valley in that direction, the river flowing eastward along the 
base of the Bumza block. 

The Sang-yi soldiers accepted my proposition to remain where 
I am till the 25th with evident pleasure, and said that they would 
be back from Nagch'uk'a with the Ponbo by that time. 

*This does not substantially disagree with what Capt. Bower learnt; according 
to him Jyade extends some twenty miles farther west, but he was a little farther 
south than I (about twelve miles). See p. 248, note f. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 253 

July 2j. — The whole Tankar caravan was stopped this morning 
by the guard until its chiefs could prove satisfactorily that 1 had not 
arrived in their company. Several of the head-traders {tsong-pon) 
came in great distress to my camp with the chief of the post, and 
I had to go over the whole story of my wanderings again to satisfy 
the soldiers that they had not assisted me in getting here. They 
were finally allowed to go to Nagch'uk'a to there wait until the 
K'anpo had seen me and heard me tell once more my story. 
The Tsong-pon apologized before leaving for having had me 
stopped, but said that had they not done so, and had we arrived 
together at Nagch'uk'a, their caravan would certainly have been 
detained there for months, or they would have had to pay a big 
squeeze. 

Unlike the Namru, all the people of this section of the country 
are great tobacco smokers, whereas the former disliked extremely 
the odor of the smoke. The tribe living on the east side of the 
Dang ch'u, just opposite where we are camped, are the Jyade Pere. 
Some of them came over to my camp to-day. The hats (^shara) 
of several of them were low crowned, exactly the shape of our 
straw hats, but covered with white cotton and made of grass wrap- 
ped with woolen threads. In dress the people of this part of the 
country resemble the Namru, but they wear more ornaments, and 
most of them have more clothing, nearly all having shirts oi burS 
and rather tight fitting waistcoats* of Chinese shape, and made of 
pulo, which they wear under their gowns. On their queues 
they wear sewn on a piece of red cloth, a great many ornaments, 
coins, small charm boxes, coral and turquoise beads, and one or 
more large rings of ivory. This latter ornament is nearly univer- 
sally worn. 

The Hsien-sheng and Kao pa-erh went to the Jyade side of the 
river this morning to get the sheep we bargained for yesterday. 
They met over a hundred people assembled there for pony racing. 
The ponies were ridden bare back and singly over a course about 
a li {}i mile) long. The chief inquired if I had any Chinese silver 
or rupees to exchange for Lh'asa tankas, and said he would come 
over to-morrow to see me and bring me some tankas. He and 

* Of the style called in Chinese kan-chien. The pulo usually used is of the 
multi-colored {wu ts'ai or hua) kind, the colors running across the piece, just as in 
a Roman scarf. Burk is a coarse, raw silk fabric made in India, and is in great 
demand in Tibet and the adjacent countries. 



254 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

all his people were very desirous to trade for my broken down 
ponies and mules, or to sell me fresh ones. They said that they did 
not care what the Lh'asa people said about not holding intercourse 
with foreigners, that they were enemies of Lh'asa and not ruled by 
it. The Amban at Lh'asa ruled them, they said, and it is for this, 
I suppose, that their country is called Jyade or "the Chinese 
district."* 

The soldiers camped beside me apologized profusely to-day for 
having stopped me, saying as excuse that the Lh'asa authorities 
were very severe, and that they had no discretion in the matter. 
They thanked me very much for having consented to stop and 
thus prevented their getting in trouble. 

July 24.. — The Hsien-sheng went across the river again to trade 
one of my mules to the Pere Ponbo, but found him disinclined to 
do so until I had settled matters with the Lama Ponbo of Nagch'u. 
He said the Ch'amdo territory could be reached in twenty days 
by going through Jyade, but that there was another road going 
from Nagch'uk'a to the same place, though it was a little more 
roundabout than the first. f Following the first mentioned road, 
villages were first met with ten days east of here; there were no 
great mountains to cross anywhere along it. He added that he 
supposed that since we were camped on Lh'asa territory, the 
Nagch'u K'anpo would supply us with guides and pack animals, 
as he believed he had done three years ago to some foreigners 
who had come to Nagch'u from Naktsang.J 

* It is not the Amban who rules, or rather, who has a general supervisory power 
over the most important acts of the chiefs of Jyade, but the Third Amban, as he is 
colloquially called by the Chinese, but whose official title is I Chin-ch'ai, " Envoy to 
the savages." He resides at Lh'asa and has authority over Poyul, Ts'arong and a 
number of other districts, thirty-five in all. See under date of October §th. 

f This road I joined later on in the I ch'u valley. See under date of August nth. 

XWt referred, of course, to Bonvalot. See Bonvalot, op. cit., p. 283. The 
Nagch'u K'anpo was probably his ta amban. It would appear from Bonvalot's 
narrative that he was stopped at the northeast corner of the Nyamts'o, near the west 

side of Mt. Samden Khama of explorer A K (Bonvalot's Samda Kansain). 

Conf., however, p. 235, note %• He was here, he says (p. 293), in the country of a 
tribe under Chinese rule, which he calls variously Djachas, Djachong, Tatchong and 
Tjachong. This name must be Jya Shung or " Chinese from the Shang shung dis- 
trict." This district is immediately south of the Nagch'uk'a one and north of Dam 

(A K 's Damgyastryok). Bonvalot (p. 293) says that the stream which 

flows into the Nyamts'o from the east, and on the banks of which he camped for 
quite a while, is called Samda ch'u. Nain Singh gives the name of the only eastern 
feeder of the lake as the Nai ch'u. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 255 

The flocks of sheep hereabout are very small, and the herds of 
yaks comparatively large; ponies are very undersized and dear, 
but more gracefully shaped than the Koko-nor ones. I learnt 
from my guards, who are more communicative than the Namru 
about things in general, that trade with China is divided between 
the Tale lama and the Pan-ch'en rinpoch'e of Tashil'unpo, all the 
caravans of the former go to Tankar, those of the latter to 
Ta-chien-lu, and one potentate may not send caravans to the 
market of the other. Of course this only refers to the great 
governmental caravans, and cannot possibly apply to the small 
private ones, of which a large number goes out every year, 
especially to Ta-chien-lu. 

The language of the Jyade and that of the people on this side of 
the river differ considerably, that of the latter being more readily 
understood by both the Hsien-sheng and myself. Both the pro- 
nunciation and the vocabularies of these two peoples show 
notable differences between them. 

July 25. — The Pere Ponbo came over to see me, and I let him 
get the better of me, not only in trading for my lame mules, but 
in selling me some trinkets he wore, and which I was surprised 
to see were of Derge make*. He repeated what he had said 
yesterday to the Hsien-sheng about the journey to Ch'amdo 
through Jyade. The road is stony but not bad («V)t and there 
are no passes to cross, by which 1 understand no very high 
mountain ranges. There is also, he said, a much traveled road 
going to Jyiikundo, and it takes about as long to reach that place 
as it does to travel to Ch'amdo. He said, furthermore, that if I 
settled matters amicably with the Nagch'u people and then came 
over to his side of the river, he would find me a guide to go to 
Ch'amdo, and supply me with all the provisions I might require. 

Towards evening the Sang-yi Deba (who lives near Nagch'uk'a) 
rode up accompanied by five or six men and came at once to my 
tent. A long wrangle, such as 1 had had in Namru, began at 
once. The Deba insisted on my going back the way I had come, 
to the north of the Dang la, where I would be free to do as I 

* On Derge jewelry and iron work, see Land of the Lamas, p. 228. 

t When a Tibetan says that a road is bad he means it literally. He is not, how- 
ever, a very good judge of such matters as there is not a good road within the confines 
of Tibet, 



256 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

pleased. He knew of no country outside of his own, could give 
me therefore no guide, nor was he willing to let me have provisions. 
I replied that if they did not agree by to-morrow to conduct me 
into Chinese governed territory and there arrange with some Ponbo 
to have me escorted to Ch'amdo, I would go to Nagch'uk'a and, 
if necessary, to Lh'asa, to see the Amban, whose Emperor's 
passport 1 had. The Deba said that 1 could not go to Nagch'uk'a, 
that it was on Deba djong territory and that they would not allow 
me to travel on it. I told him that he would find out if I could 
not go there, that two years ago three foreigners (Bonvalot and 
his party) had come to Nagch'uk'a without passports, and that 
notwithstanding this they had been escorted with all due politeness 
to Bat'ang. 1, who had a passport, could not admit that they should 
show me less courtesy. In short, it was a proof of great conde- 
scension on my part to argue the question with them, what I 
ought to do was to go to Lh'asa to settle the question with the 
Amban who alone had authority to regulate my movements. 
Since I waived this unquestionable right, they should show their 
appreciation of my kindness by endeavoring to comply with all 
my wishes. 

On this the Deba left and said he would return early to-morrow. 
All that 1 want is for these people to escort me across the river 
and arrange with the Pere Ponbo about guides and show to him 
that 1 am a person of some importance. 1 feel awfully weary of 
arguing with these people who, though perfectly polite, are 
terribly stubborn and meet all my arguments with "if you don't 
do so and so, off will go our heads, for this is Deba djong 
territory." 

July 26. — Early this morning the Nyerpa of the Nagch'u K'anpo, 
a fine looking man of thirty, of a strongly marked Kashmiri type 
and very handsomely dressed in the half Tibetan, half Chinese style 
usual at Lh'asa, with a turban rolled around his gilt edged gray felt 
hat, rode up with a numerous escort of Drupa and four or five other 
Lh'asa men, among them two lads of between sixteen and 
eighteen. Two large white tents were soon pitched near mine 
and the Nyerpa at once called on me. He spoke the pure Lh'asa 
dialect, and we were soon on the best of terms, and he readily 
agreed to see the Pere Ponbo, tell him who I was and ask him to 
supply me with a guide, pack animals and all I required to travel 
to Ch'amdo. 



11:..... 



i^J_j_ 




2 

1. Wooden tea cnnRN (KanzeV (U. S. N. M. 131040.) 
2. Bamboo tea cmiHN, wrai^ped with yak-hair cord and chiirning-stick (Jyadfe). (11. S. N. M. 1C721.5.) 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 257 

In course of conversation he said that he recognized me, though 
I had cut off my beard since last he saw me, and that 1 was one 
of the three foreigners who had come here three years ago, the 
one who spoke Chinese. He evidently took me for Mons. 
Dedecken who accompanied Bonvalot on his journey. He also 
insisted that I had been to Lh'asa and Shigatse, for I knew all about 
the temples, buildings and places of interest in those cities. He 
himself has been to Ladak, where he had seen foreigners, and a 
headman who accompanied him had been to Darjeeling. Most of 
the day was passed amusing him and his party, and getting such 
information as 1 could from them without plying them with 
questions, which is a poor way to get reliable information from 
Asiatics. They said that the Lh'asa people are and have been for 
many years on bad terms {jamdri j'yab), with the Jyade people, 
and that they have nothing to do with them, and never go into 
their country. 

He sent two old men (one a Tibetanized Chinese from Tankar) 
over to see the Pere Ponbo, and when they came back I was told 
by them that there were three routes leading hence to Ta-chien- 
lu, the first by Ch'amdo, the second* south of it and called the 
ja-lam or "tea road," and the third by way of Jyakundo and the 
Horba country. f This latter is evidently the road I followed in 
1889. It was decided among us that to-morrow the Hsien-sheng 
and I should accompany the Nyerpa and four of his headmen to 
the other side of the Dang ch'u where the Pere Ponbo will meet 
us and we shall then settle all questions about my further 
movements. 

Altogether it has been a very fatiguing day for me, but my time 
has not been entirely lost for I do not believe that the route I am 
going to follow was gone over by Bonvalot; even if he did, any 
inhabited part of Tibet is worth careful study, and this Jyade, of 

* This second route falls into the first on reaching the 1 ch'u. See under date of 
August nth. 

f This route has been followed by Miss Annie R. Taylor in 1892. Miss Taylor 
was probably stopped at or near the point on the Hsi-ning-Lh'asa road reached by 
Capt. Bower and called by him Atak Memar. It may be, however, that she struck 
the highroad a little north of where 1 did (and the very vague description she has 
published of her travels admit of both these suppositions), in which case she must 
have been stopped by the same party which met me here. 



258 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

which 1 have never heard mention in Chinese works, must prove 
exceptionally interesting.* 

July zj. — Another very trying and anxious day is over. At 
daylight the Nyerpa sent me a present of a sheep and a bag of 
tsamba, and asked me to come drink tea with him. Taking with 
me some odds and ends, to give him as a return present, I went 
to his tent, and having drunk a few bowls of very bad tea, we got 
on our horses, rode across the river and stopped on a little bluff 
near the bank. There were in our party the Hsien-sheng and 
myself, the Nyerpa, the Sang-yi Deba, a Sera lama, whose official 
position I do not exactly understand, and two or three of the oldest 
men. We lit a fire, and putting the kettle on had tea, but we 
had scarcely drunk a bowl before the Pere Ponbo and a few men 
rode up and lit a fire a little way off from ours and put their kettle 
on. Then the Nyerpa went forward towards the Ponbo, who also 
advanced to meet him. The two squatted down and had a long, 
confidential talk, which ended by each one putting a k'atag around 
the neck of the other, when the Nyerpa came back to our fire in 
company with the Jyade chief, and I was asked to tell the latter 
my story, after which more tea was drunk, and the Pere Ponbo 
said he would await me and my party to escort me to his camp, a 
couple of miles away. 

I quickly rode back and struck camp, but before leaving the 
Nagch'u Nyerpa had the impudence to come and say that he 
hoped that when I returned to my country I would tell how 
kindly 1 had been treated by the Nagch'u officials and what good 
people they were. The Tibetanized Tankar Chinaman (who, by 
the way, would not speak a word of Chinese to us for fear of 
compromising himself, so horribly suspicious are these people) 
came also and begged for some tsa-pa tobacco, f and was given 
not only some tobacco but a jack knife and a pipe for the little 
services he had indirectly rendered us. 

The Pere Ponbo's tent was in the plain about two and one-half 
miles east-southeast of the river, and I camped near it and on the 

* 1 have, since writing the above, made diligent search for any mention of this 
Chinese province or Jyade in Chinese official works at my disposal, but can find none. 

t A very bad smelling but very popular mixture which, like all smoking mixtures, 
varies according to the brand, except in smell which never departs from its high 
standard. Bonvalot found a Kansu man (he calls the province Kensi) living at So 
gomba. See Bonvalot, Op. cii., 340. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 259 

bank of a pool. The Ponbo brought me some tankas in exchange 
for sycee, and had a long talk with me about the road I should 
take. He at first insisted that I must go to Jyiikor (Jyakundo),* 
which he said was only ten or twelve days away, but this I 
refused to do without, however, telling him that I had been there 
or knew anything of the country. Then he asked me to remain 
encamped where I was till he could go and see the Horgo Deba, 
a big chief who rules the country east of here and who is now a 
day's ride hence. This I again refused to do. 

'I said that if he would supply me with a guide at once, I would 
pay him at the rate of an ounce of silver for each day's march. 
This very tempting offer decided him, and he said he would send 
a man with me to-morrow so that I might move on a little, and 
that he, in the meantime, would go see the Horgo Deba and meet 
me later in the day. 

Several of the Pere men who came to my tent were covered 
with rings and other ornaments of Derge make, and I bought a 
handsome silver-mounted belt with attached knife, needle case, 
etc., from one, and also several earrings of Lh'asa make, which 
have the additional interest of showing that the form of that 
ornament as usually worn by Mongol women is derived from the 
Tibetans, as is, in fact, most of their dress. 

I heard that the number of caravans coming from the Horba 
country and passing through here on their way to Lh'asa is very 
great. Golok kafilas also take this route. The former carry tea 
to Lh'asa and return loaded with barley and pulo. The Jyade are 
therefore enabled to do most of their trading at their tent doors. 
The money in general use is the Lh'asa currency, of which there 
are three kinds, all of the value of a tanka. The only variety used 
here (when new) is called Gaddn tanka; there is also the kind 
colloquially called B'd-gi gyalpo-gi tanka ("the King of Tibet's 
tanka"), which has four numerals in the center, f and then there 
is the Nepalese tanka. There are many counterfeit coins, very poor 
imitations they are, and known as p'ugu-tsutL The rupee 

*Capt. Bower {Op. cit., 33 and 51) is the only Tibetan traveler who gives this 

important locality its right name. A K and others call it Kege, Kegudo or 

Kegedo, but Capt. Bower writes the name Gya Kundo and Gya Kudo. 

t These numbers give the year in which the coin was struck, counted from the 
death of the Buddha. See on the coinage of Tibet, Terrien de Lacouperie, Numis- 
matic Chronicle, 1882, which does not, however, treat the subject exhaustively. 



26o JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

exchanges for three tankas, although it is only worth from thirty- 
one to thirty-two tael cents, while three tankas are supposed to be 
worth forty-five. Ten rupees are given for an ounce of sycee. 

July 28. — We made about six miles across a rough plain with 
grass-covered tussocks and pools of water, and camped at the 
foot of some low hills of granite about a mile east of the tent 
gomba of Trashiling, where there are two hundred Bonbo akas. 
I find out that the whole Jyade country belongs to this persuasion, 
hence in all probability the enmity shown it by Lh'asa. 

The Pere Ponbo left before we did, and rode to the Trashiling 
gomba, where the Horgo Deba is stopping, to arrange with him 
about my journey to Ch'amdo. About an hour after we had made 
camp, he and the Horgo Deba arrived, the latter a typical Drupa 
chief, of massive build, corpulent, with a rather thin, aquiline nose 
and high cheek bones, resembling on the whole very much a 
Sioux Indian. His hair hung down around his face in a tangled 
mass, and he was rather bald on the crown of his head. His 
already large person looked immense in his sheepskin ch'uba, over 
which was a purple pulo gown; a broad cloth band passed over 
his right shoulder and under his left arm, and on it were fastened 
a dozen silver charm boxes {gawo) ; a huge bunch of many colored 
ribbons hung also from his shoulder, and a long straight sword was 
passed in his belt. He wore one of the customary high crowned 
straw hats but covered with yellow stuff, an official badge as it 
were, and he rode a diminutive pony which literally disappeared 
under him. Behind him rode one of his men, a dirty, wild looking 
but smiling fellow, carrymg a red cotton umbrella tied behind his 
back, evidently a much prized article belonging to the big chief. 

Nor gyal-tsan ("The standard of wealth") is the chief's 
name; he is one of the thirty-six Debas appointed by the Lh'asa 
Amban to rule Jyade, and who have the right to wear a coral 
button. These Debas receive a yearly allowance o^ ontyuan-pao* 
from the Chinese government. He proved to be a very jolly, 
sociable fellow, a great laugher and very amenable to reason. f 

* A piece of bullion weighing 50 taels of silver. It is usually called a yambu 
(corrupt pronunciation oi yuan pao), or do-tsa {rdo-tsad ) or even do. Ta-mi-nta 
{rta-rmig-ma, " horse hoof") is also used to designate an ingot of silver, irrespective 
of weight. 

t Bonvalot appears to have met him in Nar Pei-hu. He says of him " C est un 
enorme gaillard, a I'ocil gris, qui a le tchang aimable." Bonvalot, Op. cit., 367. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 261 

He agreed to have me escorted to Mer djong, the first place on 
Ch'amdo territory beyond Jyade, but refused to go to the town of 
Ch'amdo, as he said he and his people were not on terms with 
that country, which professed the orthodox faith of the Gelug 
sect while the Jyade were Bonbo. He said he would vouch for 
my safety while traveling with him, or the guides he would furnish 
me, or, as he put it, "if the sky falls, it shall strike me alone." 

Then came the question of compensation, and it was finally 
agreed that I should give him a yuan-pao. I thereupon made 
him a few presents and gave him some earnest money, and also 
some to the Pere Ponbo, who had shown himself a good go- 
between. 

The Horgo Deba said it would probably take from fifteen to 
twenty days to reach Mer djong; from what I learn the road is 
good and provisions abundant, so we shall at last travel in comfort 
and our troubles are at an end. 

This chief reminds me of my former friend, Nyam-ts'o Purdung, 
the same frank, hearty manner, and very much the same physique. 
He stayed the greater part of the day with me, laughing and 
joking all the time, and was not over inquisitive. 1 bought a 
number of things from different men who came to my camp, and 
the Deba settled the price I was to pay for each object in a most 
satisfactory way. Quantities of silver and gold ornaments were 
offered me, but I unfortunately could not afford to buy many 
that I should much liked to have secured. 

The Deba said he would be ready to start to-morrow morning, 
and that he would join me here at an early hour. 

July 29. — The Deba, with his steward {NySrpa) and a servant, 
joined me this morning, and we started off in high spirits. We 
took a general easterly course over low hills of granitic boulders 
covered with a thin layer of soil, with here and there patches 
covered with the tussocks of grass and little water holes we have 
got to hate so in traveling in Tibet. About twelve miles south of 
us was a range of hills with rounded summits and of no great height ; 
it is called Shar-yong, and much farther away to the southeast and 
south-southeast rose a line of snow peaks (probably those marked 
on our maps as north of Larego) called Om-yong. 

We made about twelve miles, and camped at a place called 
Chingo (or Tsinkor), where there are a few tents, and where the 



262 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

Deba has to change his ula* A violent hailstorm swept over us 
at 2 p. M., with much thunder and lightning, and about one and 
one-half inches of hailstones of the size of cherries fell. 

The Deba has a fine white cotton tent, of the pavilion shape in 
general use in this country among travelers. He asked me to tea, 
and regaled me with dainties, such as we have not tasted for many 
a day, dried apricots and melons, chuoma (he pronounced the 
word droma), sweet biscuits, dried mutton, chura and milk-tea. 
He is a very kind man, and I touched his heart by telling him that 
I had not heard from my home for a year and was very anxious 
to get to some place where I might receive news of my people. 
He said he would hurry along as much as he could, that traveling 
with ula animals was a slow method at best, but he, being a poor 
man and having only one horse of his own with him, had to use 
ula ponies exclusively. I hardly believe we can reach Ch'amdo in 
less than twenty-five days. 

I learnt from the Deba that the Jyakundo road is infested by 
Chakba (brigands)and that the Jyade do not often go there them- 
selves, but travel to Lh'asa or Po-yul. He says one of the reasons 
which keeps him from going to Ch'amdo or Ta-chien-lu is the 
excessive heat of those places. The fact is that anyone who lives 
in this country may well fear the heat, for the thermometer marks 
5° or 6° of cold every night in the hottest part of summer. 

The country we have traversed since crossing the Dang ch'u is, 
for a grazing country, very thickly populated, f To-day we passed 
between thirty and forty tents, and the previous days we saw 
about as many. In every tent there are from four to eight persons. 

The Deba's steward, Anyang by name, is also his private chap- 
lain; this evening he read prayers in the most approved fashion, 
and, though he is a Bonbo, I could not notice any difference in the 
method of conducting the ceremony from that observed by 
orthodox lamas on similar occasions; he rang the bell, clapped his 
hands, burnt incense, etc., in exactly the same manner as they do. 

* On the term ula and on the abuses to which it gives rise, see Land of the 
Lamas, 52, 53, 139, etc. 

f A K , speaking of this region, says there are 500 tents in the Shang- 

shung district, 3,000 in the Nagch'uk'a one, 500 in Ata, 1,000 in Yagra, etc. My 

experience tends to prove that A K made sometimes rather wild guesses. 

The country to which he thus gives, a population of not less than 20,000 persons, 
exclusive of Akas, could barely support 5,000. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 263 

July 30. — As was to be expected in a country where the people 
are so fortunate as still to be able to put no value on time, the 
Deba's ula was not forthcoming this morning, so we have had to 
wait here a day. The ula supplied here will go two stages, and 
then we shall have to change it again, and probably make another 
halt of a day or so waiting for it to turn up, and so on in like 
fashion to the end of the journey. 

I hear the Deba lives about five days east of here, and that he 
will leave me when we reach his home and send us on to Mer 
djong with other guides, and that we shall, in the latter part of the 
journey, be able to make up much of the time we are now losing. 

I heard to-day from two men living here that towards the 
beginning of this year two foreigners with red beards, close fitting 
clothes, turbans, foreign boots and armed with rifles, revolvers and 
big knives, and who had come from Naktsang, had passed south 
of here and had gone to Ch'amdo and Ta-chien-lu. The way 
they followed was along the farther side of the range we see to 
the south of this place, and the road on which they traveled was 
called the Ja lam (" Tea road"). They had a Chinese interpreter 
(Jotsa), a Kache, and a number of servants, some twenty mules 
and horses, and their boxes were so big and heavy that it required 
two men to lift one. They gave the ula people a small gold coin 
and presented the Ponbo with two. They had a passport. The 
men who told me all this did not see these p'yling, only heard tell 
of their passage and of their strange appearance. They had also 
heard of the passage over this same road {i. e., Ja lam) some 
three years ago of three other foreigners who also came from 
Naktsang and went towards Ta-chien-lu. This evidently refers 
to Bonvalot's expedition.* 

The foreigners who went through this year did not reach 
Nagch'uk'a but were stopped some distance north of it. I can- 
not conceive to whom the people here refer. I have not heard of 
any expedition having left for Tibet since my last journey, but the 
details given me about these men's dress are so circumstantial that 
my informants cannot be lying about it. It must be a party 
from Kashmir or Turkestan. The gold coin they used points to 
India. 

* Capt. Bower and Dr. Thorold passed through this country in November, 1891. 
See Bower, Op. cit., 51, et seq. 



264 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

The Deba, I was told, is a native of Nar Pai-hu (or Pei-iiu as he 
pronounces these Chinese words).* There is also a district conti- 
guous to his called Kar Pai-hu. All the people hereabout carry 
slings, called orta made of plaited yarn ; one string has a leash and 



^^^^S«N 




SLING (Jyade). 



is used as a whip, in driving sheep or yak. The sling is used to 
"round up" the herds or flocks; the herders throw bits of dry 
dung or small pebbles with wonderful accuracy, driving in any 
animal which has strayed away. I have also seen them throw 
large pebbles several hundred yards. I have not heard the word 
yak used by any Tibetans; in this section of the country all 
domestic vaks are called nor, this word meaning also "riches, 
wealth." 



* Pai-hu or "Hundred families," is a Chinese administrative division used among 
the aboriginal tribes of China, and in Chinese dependencies generally. The chief of 
an Hundred is usually called Po-ch'ang. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 265 

July SI. — The ula arrived at daylight and we started by 7 a. m., 
but the yaks were very fresh and had hardly been loaded when 
they broke away and had soon scattered their loads in out of the 
way nooks all over the country. It took several hours to collect 
the Deba's property and to get it loaded again, when the same 
thing occurred a second time. Finally the yaks settled down to 
work, and we pushed on rapidly until 7 p. m., by which time we 
had made twenty-three miles and reached the banks of the 
Nashe ch'u. 

About four miles from Chingo we crossed the "upper" Jyad- 
undo road {go7ig-7tia lam) to Nagch'uk'a, a well-beaten, wide 
trail which must be very much traveled over. A few miles farther 
on we passed the " middle road " or bar-ma lam, going also from 
Jyakundo to the same place.* 

We traveled in a general east by south direction over the foot- 
hills of the little range of mountains we have been skirting since 
crossing the Dang ch'u, but immediately after leaving Chingo we 
passed out of the basin of the Dang ch'u and entered one in which 
all the water (there were remarkably few streams in it by the 
way)fl owed eastward to empty, in all probability, into the Nashe 
ch'u. The country traversed to-day showed mostly granitic rocks, 
the surface rock much eroded. 

We saw a great many tents in clusters of three and four in every 
little sheltered corner. The flocks of sheep are everywhere small, 
we have not seen one of a thousand head. The herds of yaks 
vary from thirty or forty up to two hundred or three hundred. 
Goats are scarce, and the only dogs I have noticed are of the 
Chinese cur species. We have not seen any domestic fowls or 
cats. There are very few birds, the Mongolian lark (J) and a few 
wild pigeons are the only ones I have remarked. 

The people in the camp near which we stopped to-day to take 
lunch were most polite and good-natured; the women's headdress 
was more ornate than any heretofore seen. I managed to photo- 
graph both men and women with little difficulty, all I had to do 

* Later on we came to the lower road (og-tna lam) to Jyakundo and followed it 
for several days, leaving it only on the Su ch'u. See under date oi August 2d. Capt. 
Bower passed the upper and middle roads near or at his camps 96 and 97. He refers 
in his Diary (p. 54) to one of these roads, 1 cannot make out which, as " a broad 
trail leading to Lh'asa, on which we met numbers of Tibetans taking yaks laden with 
butter to market." 



266 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

was to ask some of them to stand quite still while I showed to 
others their image in the finder of the camera. They took the 
camera for a kind of telescope. 

We descended steadily all day and at our camp this evening we 
are at the lowest altitude reached for months, about 14,200 feet 
above sea level. The soil all along the route was well covered 
with grass, and we picked a quantity of a delicious kind of mush- 
room {shara)^ with a yellow upper skin and white underneath, 
which we have enjoyed greatly. Fried with butter they tasted 
exactly like cepes a la Bordelaise, perhaps they are cepes. 

The Jyade tell me that they only occupy the high region from 
which we have just come, during the summer, coming down to 
the lower valleys, such as the Nashe ch'u, in winter. This Nashe 
ch'u comes from behind the range we have been following, and 
which terminates here, to be succeeded by another of bare lime- 
stone crags some six hundred feet high coming from the west- 
northwest, and continuing in a southeast by east direction as far 
as we can see, the Nashe ch'u running along its base. This stream 
empties into a "big river "f which we will come to in a few 
days, so says the Deba. 

August I. — We followed for a few miles the left bank of the 
Nashe ch'u till near where it takes a southeast direction and enters 
a narrow gorge, when we struck over the foothills of the rocky 
range on our left, and, crossing two streams flowing southwest, 
and which empty into the Nashe ch'u at the gorge previously 
referred to, we entered the basin of another little feeder of the 
same river. 

A very heavy thunder storm overtook us at about 3 p. m., and 
one of the pack-horses bolted and dropped its load all over the 
country. We were so much delayed by this contre temps that we 
had to camp some three or four miles west of where we had 
intended to. The rain continued falling all the afternoon and 



*Jaeschke, Tib. Engl. Did., writes this word jAa-wo, and says: "The various 
species of fungus receive their appellations from their color [dkar-sha, nag-ska, 
smug-sha, ser-sha) or from the places where they grow (klims-sha, chu-sha, 
lud-ska, sking-sha). The damp climate of Sikkim produces, moreover, so-ke, k'a- 
wa and de-mo sha-mo, etc., Csoma has also sha-mang, a thick kind of mushroom." 

fThis " big river " (ch'u ch'en-pd) is the Su ch'u. 




Headdress of Jyade Woman. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 267 

The country to-day was covered with fine grass, and Drupa 
were numerous, the tents in groups of three or four. The Deba 
is most obliging, he sees to ail my wants and sends me daily some 
presents, either dried meat or sweet cakes, but he will neither eat 
nor drink in my tent, though I daily go to his and have tea with 
him. He heard me say that the tinder 1 was using had been given 
me by the Nagch'u officials, and he insisted on my throwing it 
away, as he said it was probably poisoned. Nothing could induce 
him, he added, to take food or drink prepared by them, so danger- 
ous did he consider them. This is probably all in his imagination, 
for, though I know of many cases of persons having been got 
rid of at Lh'asa by poison, I doubt very much if poison is used 
there in this wholesale manner. 

August 2. — We changed the Deba's ula about five miles from 
our camp of last night and, strange to say, experienced no delay. 
After going about seven and a half miles in an easterly direction 
we struck the lower Jyiikundo road {Og-ma lam) and followed it 
in a northeast direction, crossing the range which we have been 
skirting since we first came to the Nashe ch'u. The road over 
the pass, which is called the Drajya lamo la, is very steep and 
runs between vertical cliffs and crags of limestone, but the pass 
is fortunately not at all high. 

We camped about four miles northeast of the pass in a narrow 
valley with mountains of limestone rocks rising vertically on either 
side. The ground on which we have camped is one big bed of 
fragrant light blue flowers,* and the grass is so long that it makes 
a soft bed for us. Several Drupa have their tents high up the 
mountain sides on patches of green sward. These people showed 
themselves very obliging, bringing us down dry dung {chotigwa), 
milk and sho {djo), for which 1 gave them a tanka. We are here 
in the district of Dzang ch'ere. There are so many Ponbos and 
such a multitude of districts that it is quite impossible to note 
them all. The Deba gave me the names of a dozen or more in 
this section of the country, but he said that he could not remember 
the names of all of them. 

August .?. — We only made about nine miles to-day, being 
obliged to change the ula again. Leaving the stream which comes 

* Tretocarya sikkimensis. See Appendix. 



268 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

down from the Drajya lamo pass, we crossed another low pass 
and followed the valley on the northeast side till we came 
to a place called Song-chyang sumdo, where the brook we had 
been following received another stream, hence the name Sumdo 
or "three-valley-mouths"; the one through which the stream 
flows below this point being counted, as it would be in China, as 
the third. Here was the first stone structure seen since leaving the 
Ts'aidam. It was but a stone hut about ten feet square and five 
high, used as a storehouse by some people living in a black tent, 
of which there were three at this spot, but it was an agreeable 
sight. 

Song-chyang sumdo, the highest spot at which we have found 
permanent habitations, is about 13,600 feet above sea level, and is 
the lowest point we have come* to since leaving the Naichi gol. 

One of the inhabitants brought me some musk for which he 
wanted five ounces of silver an ounce.* He said he went every 
year to Lh'asa where he got ten ounces of Lh'asa silver an ounce 
from the Chinese traders. He told me that musk deer were 
plentiful in the adjacent mountains. 

Children here are very numerous,! a number of them came and 
played around my tent. The little girls had small bells hanging 
from their hair and belts ; I could not learn whether they were orna- 
ments or to drive away evil spirits. All were very dirty. The 
women here and elsewhere are wonderfully energetic; they carry 
huge buckets of water or baskets of dung on their backs up the 
steep hills, J run about after the yaks, catch and milk the cows, look 
after the children, load the pack animals, go on the ula, spin, 
weave, make clothes, cook, and are nevertheless always ready to 
sing and joke. I am not astonished that Chinese should have told 
me that they made good wives. On the whole the women are 

*Capt. Bower says [pp. cit., p. 65) that at Tashiling he was offered musk at the 
rate of three pods for seven rupees. The people must have been awfully hard up or 
the musk of very poor quality. 

t Capt. Bower (op. di., 65) speaking of this section of the country says that the 
number of children seen in the villages is a striking feature, and is due to the fact 
that polyandry is not practised. 1 think he assigns a wrong cause to this undoubted 
fact. In the lower countries the people are better protected from the weather and 
better fed, hence a smaller mortality among infants, but polyandry is practised by 
them more than by the Drupa. 

X They rest the bottom of the long churn-shaped bucket on the thick folds of 
their gowns at the waist, and pass a strap around it and across their breasts. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 269 

not bad looking and not very dark skinned; soap and water 
would make them a light olive color and show that they have 
rosy cheeks. 

Anyang, the Deba's steward, wears his hair short (usually he 
has his head shaven, he tells me) ; it is as curly as a mulatto's. 
Nearly all the men have wavy hair; the women have probably 
taken the curl out of theirs by plaiting and greasing it. The peo- 
ple all put butter on their hair and frequently rub the scalp with 
it, but I have not seen anyone among the male population whose 
hair showed signs of ever having been combed. 

It is very difficult to get any one of these people to part with 
any personal ornament or portion of his or her dress; they tell me 
they fear spoiling their luck if they should*; though every one is 
anxious to sell any thing I desire which does not come within these 
two categories. 

Yesterday and the day before we found along the road quantities 
of the same delicious mushrooms first met with near the Nashe 
ch'u. We are now feasting upon them, and have also plenty of 
mutton, flour, butter and milk. We all feel ever so much stronger 
than when we left the Namru or the Dang ch'u, and besides 
that, the weather is so much better, the sun so bright, the grass so 
green, and the people everywhere so obliging, that we naturally 
see every thing in a more cheerful light. 

August 4.. — We had to wait until 2 p. m. before the ula arrived, 
and consequently only made about ten miles, camping in the 
valley of Ponta. About two miles after leaving camp we came 
to a large river, the Pon ch'u.f coming from the north-northwest 
and flowing, as far as I can see, a little north of east to empty into 
the "big river" of which we have been hearing so much of late. 

* Or it may be they think they will be bewitched. In some parts of China (in 
Kan-su, among Mohammedans even) when a man has been shaved, he takes the hair 
cut off his head and conceals it. 1 fancy this custom has a similar origin. See p. 
171, the use made of hair, etc., by the Mongols in witchcraft. 

t It is difficult to follow Capt. Bower's route in all its details, but he appears to 
have crossed the Pon ch'u, for I find marked on his map a place called Pongra, near 
" a large river " flowing south. The course he assigns this river is conjectural; it flows, 
probably, south of where he crossed it, in an east-southeast direction, to empty into 
the Su ch'u a little south of where Capt. Bower crossed the latter river. He calls, 
by the way, the Su ch'u Sak ch'u, but on his route map it is called by mistake Ircho 
(I ch'u). The I ch'u empties into the Su ch'u, and the new stream bears the latter 
name till it becomes, if my informants were correct in their statements, the Jyama 
Ngul ch'u, "the Ngul ch'u of lower Jya(de)," which may be the Salwen. 



270 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

After fording the river we crossed a mountain on its left bank, 
and entered a little " park" in which there were thirteen or four- 
teen black tents, near one of which we camped. 

The limestone formation, which we first met with on reaching 
the Nashe ch'u continues along the right bank of the Pon ch'u as 
far east as we can see. At Song-chyang sumdo a good deal of 
red sandstone conglomerate was also visible. This limestone 
range, on the north side of which we now are, is not over three 
or four miles in breadth. 

I have been very much surprised to find throughout the Jyade 
country so few ponies, here at Ponta there are not a half dozen, 
though vaks and sheep are plentiful. 

The language spoken in Jyade presents numerous peculiarities I 
have not met with elsewhere. To note only one — they use the 
particle le and ta (the latter probably the Lh'asan ti and ^//) to 
indicate the present tense. Thus they say go-li ri, "I (or you) 
want \\.\" go-lS ma ri, "1 (or you) do not want it." Rig-ta, " I 
see it; " Rig mi ta, " 1 (or you) do not see it." 

August 5. — The thermometer fell during the night to +22° 
Fahrenheit, but this morning when we left the air was quite warm. 
About two miles north of Ponta we crossed a low pass and 
descended into a narrow valley with vertical cliffs of limestone 
and sandstone rising a thousand feet or more on either side of it, 
and a good-sized brook flowing through it in an easterly direction. 
A good deal of brush grows in this gorge, and 1 noticed a few 
stalks of the rhubarb plant,* the first I have seen on the journey; 
there were also eight or nine black tents. 

After riding a few miles down this gorge, we turned up a side 
ravine, and after a short but stiff climb reached the top of the 
Pon la, and "the big river" at last came in view. It is the Su 
ch'u (the Sok chu of our maps).t In a short valley opening on 

* The altitude of the upper part of this valley is about 13,500 feet above sea level. 

fThis is the Souc of d'Anville, the Sac Chu of Bower, the So tchou of Bonvalot. 
Both these travelers crossed this river at the same place, which the first calls Tsuk 
Sun Dong Gong (Bower, op. cit., 56), and Bonvalot, So goumba (Bonvalot, op. 
cit., 341). The latter says the river is between one hundred and fifty and two 
hundred meters wide at this point. According to Chinese authors the name of this 
river should be written as 1 have done. The Hsi-yii tung wen chih, Bk. 22, p. 10, 
says it is called Su ch'u because it " leads off " {su in Tibetan) towards the south all 
the water in this country. 1 have never met with a word su with this meaning. 
The same work mentions, but apparently in another part of Tibet, a Sog ch'u, where 
the word sog means "the steppe " {is'ao ii). 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 271 

to the river and about two miles away from the Pon la was a small 
village of stone houses near which were several large ch'ortens. 
Here is the home of the Deba Nor gyal-ts'an, and the village bears 
the name of Ch'yi-chab. Twenty or thirty miles away to the 
south-southeast, and trending apparently south or southwest we 
saw a high range of snow-covered mountains, but the angle at 
which 1 was looking at them prevented me settling very satis- 
factorily their general trend. 

A verv steep descent of half an hour brought us to the bank of 
the river, where we found a few tents of Drupa with stone store- 
houses adjoining them and low stone walls enclosing them; no 
mortar or even mud being used in this rough masonry. A rawhide 
cable was stretched across the river between two projecting walls 
of rock and securely anchored at either end under large piles of 
stones. We unloaded and unsaddled our pack animals and ponies 
and drove them into the river which, below the bridge,* was 
about one hundred and fifty yards wide and very swift; they 
were soon safe on the other bank. We and our luggage were 
taken over later in the day when we had drunk our fill of tea 
and djo, and the old Deba had finished flirting with a buxom 
woman who sat with him for a long time under the shade of 
his gorgeous red calico umbrella. The old man was very happy 
at getting home, he was jollier than usual and laughed and joked 
with all comers. Finally, as the sun was nearing the mountain 
tops and as we wanted to sleep on the other shore where our 
tents were already pitched, we got pulled across. A traveling 
thimble of horn was put on the cable, and thongs attached to it 
passed around our waist and between our legs and lashed us 
securely to the thimble. By means of a guy rope attached to the 
thimble we were dragged across by men on the farther bank, and 
the thimble was drawn back by another guy rope to the nearer 
bank for the next passenger. 

The Deba put up his tent near mine, though he was only a mile 
or so from his own home, but, he said, he would not leave me 
till he had seen me safely off to Mer djong, and I, for my part, am 
loth to part a minute sooner than is necessary from the good old 
fellow. He is going to send Anyang as my guide, and a better 

* Explorer K P says that such bridges are called bring in Tibetan. 

Report on Explor. in Sikkint, Bhutan, etc , 12. 1 have never heard any other 
name used but zam or zaniba, the usual word for bridge. 



272 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

man he could not possibly furnish, he is kind, polite and energetic, 
a worthy servant of such a kind master. 

At this point, called Tsega, we leave the "Lower Jyiikundo 
road " which we have been following all the way from the Dnijya- 
lamo pass. It turns up the valley in which Ch'yi-chab is situated, 
while we, go naturally eastward. I hear we can certainly reach 
Ch'amdo within fifteen days, and everyone says the road is good. 

I have inquired here about the two foreigners 1 heard of at 
Chingo, but no one had seen them though many had heard of 
their passage to the south of here. About two miles up the Su 
ch'u valley, but out of our line of vision, is a Bonbo lamasery with 
a hundred lamas or more. I noticed a large pile of logs by the 
river bank, and I learnt that they are brought here on yak-back 
from quite a long distance down the Su ch'u and are used in house 
building. Those 1 saw are for a new temple, or for repairing the 
Gomba above here. They are of pine wood and of about the 
size and length of railroad sleepers. 

Though the morning was quite cool, the thermometer in the 
shade rose at 2 p. m. to 77°, but there was a pleasant breeze 
blowing all day, and we all enjoyed camping by this pretty river, 
chatting with the people, who are free and familiar without ever 
being obtrusive.* I have only to tell them that 1 want to be alone 
and everyone leaves my tent, and none venture near it till I call 
them. 

August 6. — To-day has been devoted to eating, making and 
receiving presents and showing my various possessions to the 
many visitors who have called on me. My friend, Deba Nor 
gyal-ts'an, has overwhelmed me with presents of food for the 
journey, enough to carry me to Ch'amdo. 

The Chief of Miri.f his son and brother and a numerous escort 
came down the valley, and learning that there was a foreigner 

* I cannot agree with Capt. Bower who says {Op. cit., 53 and 62) " It is a long 
time before one thoroughly understands what a mistake it is ever to be polite, or 
assume any affectation of friendliness, with Tibetans or Chinese. * * While by 
taking a high tone, civility would be insured, and as much honesty as their natures 
are capable of. They can be managed by fear, but not by love." 1 am glad to say 
that I have never had to regret the politeness I have shown any of these people. 
They, as well as all Asiatics, thoroughly appreciate politeness and courtesy, though 
firmness and a certain amount of reserve should never be forgotten in all one's inter- 
course with them. 

f He lived, he said, near Pemba, on the highroad to Lh'asa. 




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JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 273 

here, they camped near by and came to see me. They were the 
best dressed chieftains 1 had seen, with gowns of black yii-ling, 
lined with lambskin and trimmed with otter fur, well combed 
hair falling over their shoulders and cut in a fringe over their brows, 
and necklaces of big coral and agate beads; they looked like 
nobles of the time of Louis VIM of France. 

Accompanying them was their chaplain, a very clever and well 
read Bonbo lama, who at once asked me about the foreign 
alphabet and numerals. Under each letter of the alphabet that 
1 gave him he wrote the sound in Tibetan, and seemed immensely 
pleased that some of the numerals used by us were identical with 
those of his country, and the others somewhat similar. 

The Miri Ponbo surprised me by asking me if I was not in the 
habit of noting the names of all the rivers, mountains, villages 
and towns 1 passed by, and whether 1 was not looking out for 
deposits of the precious metals. Chinese must have told him 
foreigners had no other object in view when traveling than to find 
out the hidden treasures of a country. These chiefs expressed 
very freely their hatred for Deba djong, which I now feel sure is 
founded on the fact that they have been persecuted by it on 
account of their faith. 

The lama asked me very embarrassing questions about our ideas 
of future life, and when I told him that most of us believed that 
the soul {sempa nyid) lived eternally, he clapped his hands and 
said that we must then be Bonbo. 1 turned the conversation to 
another subject as 1 felt that we were getting on unsafe ground. 

Two lama pilgrims from. Labrang gomba (in Amdo) came into 
camp. They were on their way to Lh'asa, had left their gomba 
six months ago, and had come here by way of the Golok country 
and Jyiikundo.* 

1 heard also from some of my visitors that Jive foreigners had 
passed south of here on their way to China in January of this year. 
They had come from Naktsang and had tried to go to Lh'asa, but 
failing in that, had taken the Ja lam to Tarchendo. No foreigners, 
I was assured, have ever been here before me.f 

* The road they traveled over is, in all probability, the identical one followed a year 
later by Miss A. R. Taylor, of the China Inland Mission. 

f Bonvalot and Bower came on to the Su ch'u at or near its confluence with the 
I ch'u, probably fifteen to twenty miles farther down the river than Tsega. 



274 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

I bought a few curios, swords, ornaments, a gun and some 
very pretty Derge knives. All the people let the Ponbo fix the 
price of their goods, and abided without a murmur by his 
decision, though it was usually very much less than what they 
asked. A beggar woman, the first I have seen in Tibet, came 
to my tent, but the Ponbo would not let me give her anything and 
told her she ought to be ashamed of herself importuning his guest; 
he smacked her on the face, and then gave her a tanka himself. 

When the Miri Ponbo left my tent, I heard him say to his 
brother ' 'Pyling Ponbo niiyab-bo,yab-bo re, " ("The foreign official 
is a very good man, ") and turning to the Hsien-sheng, he asked him 
if it were likely that I would come back to Jyade, that in case I 
did, I must come and stop a while with him. 

August J. — It was hardly daylight when the Horgo Deba sent 
and asked m.e to com.e breakfast with him. After our meal was 
over 1 paid him the 50 taels I owed him and made him a present 
of a handsome rug, some satin ribbons and a pair of Japanese 
lacquer bowls. I also bought from him a very handsome flint 
and steel, ornamented with gold and silver and made in Poma, 
a pair of leather saddle-cloth covers from the same country, and his 
fine matchlock. The old man was very much pleased at my 
buying these things from him as he said he was more in want of 
money than of finery. I asked the chief to give me rupees for a 
yuan-pao, as tankas are no longer current east of here, and each 
time I want to pay a small sum I do not like to show large 
ingots of silver, it encourages thieves. While we were talking the 
matter over, the Miri Ponbo sent and invited me to come to his 
tent to drink tea. 

He was seated on a pile of cushions reading out of a beautifully 
illuminated missal and his brother, his son and four or five servants 
were already drinking tea and preparing breakfast for me. The 
Ponbo's son cooked me a dish of hashed mutton, seasoning it 
with various condiments kept in little red leather bags; among 
these 1 noticed dried onions, and red pepper. They also gave me 
djo and cakes cooked in a large iron pan, which the Ponbo told me 
was kept exclusively for this purpose, a degree of refinement I had 
not been led to expect in this country. 

All these people are great and loud laughers; they express 
astonishment or admiration by exclaiming "Aisi" (meaning I 
think, "fine, excellent "), and drawing in a very long breath. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 275 

The Miri Ponbo told me that the name Chang-t'ang applied to 
all the inhabited region of north Tibet including even Jyade, but 
not to the desert region to the north of it. He informed me also 
that he had not long ago received a circular letter from the Lh'asa 
Amban advising him of the projected journey of four foreigners 
coming from Ssii-ch'uan, who were mapping the country.* He 
was directed not to molest or impede them in any way. He had 
also heard of the foreigners who passed south of here in January 
of this year. 

In the necklaces these Miri men wore I noticed, besides coral and 
agate beads, long cylindrical beads of a black and white stone, the 
white forming circles or bands, both longitudinal and circular. 
They said these beads were of ^^'af ^nd were found in their country, 
and were very valuable, a well marked one being worth thirty or 
forty ounces of silver. The Chinese make imitation ones but they 
are easily detected, said my informants. I am inclined to think, 
however, that this substance is a composition, for I have never 
heard of agate or onyx so regularly marked . The son of the Miri 
Ponbo had a whole necklace made of beads of this dzii. 

The Miri Ponbo is to supply me with rupees in exchange for 
my Chinese silver, Nor jyal-ts'an not having enough of them. 
Only Victorian rupees or mo-go ("female head") are every- 
where current; Georgian or P'o-go (" male head ") ones are only 
reluctantly taken. 

1 was asked to-day if this country contained any product which 
would be of value in foreign countries; I mentioned wool and 
rhubarb idjim-ts' a) .% The people were very much astonished to 
learn that this weed had any value, or medicinal properties. They 
said they had never sold any and that the only use they ever made 

* These travelers, I found out latter were Chinese scholars from the Peking Tung- 
wen kuan. 

f I know of no word but rdzas which has the meaning of "jewel," though more 
usually used with that of "object, matter," etc. These beads may be of onyx, 
though I have never seen any marked in such a regular way. 

X Dr. Hooker speaks of the " gigantic rhubarb of the Zemu valley in Sikkin." " This 
is the handsomest herbaceous plant in Sikkim: it is called 'Tchuka,' and the acid 
stems are eaten both raw and boiled. * * The dried leaves afford a substitute for 
tobacco; a smaller kind of rhubarb is, however, more commonly used in Tibet for 
this purpose." Himalayan Journals, II, 77-78. This tobacco is in great demand 
in those parts of Tibet which 1 have visited. It is brought from Lh'asa, and is called 
Vob-cVog. 



276 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

of it was to occasionally chew the stem of the green leaves which 
was agreeably acid. Deer horns they sell to the Chinese traders 
who come to Mer (or Meru) djong and at Jyakundo. They also 
sell hides and musk and a little gold dust. 

The Miri Ponbo sent me in the evening a bag of beautifully white 
and fine wheat flour. Like all the other good things he had, it 
came from Poma, a country with which the Jyade appear to carry 
on a good deal of trade, traveling there by way of Shobando. 

August 8. — We left Tsega at 8 a. M., the Deba Nor jyal-ts'an lead- 
ing my horse, on which he insisted that I should mount, for about 
a quarter of a mile, while the Miri Ponbo and all the people here- 
about accompanied me; some leading the horses of the rest of 
my party. The poor servant boy of the Deba gave me his garters 
and an old tea churn as parting presents, saying that we were such 
good friends he could not let me leave without something, and he 
had nothmg else to offer me. 

A few miles below Tsega the Su ch'u enters a narrow gorge along 
which travel is impossible, so we turned up a side valley less than 
a mile below the bridge. Here we saw the first cultivated land 
met with since entering Tibet; a little barley was growing near 
a village, or rather permanent camp, for the people were living in 
tents, with stone storehouses and out-buildings near by. Farther 
up this valley we passed a real village of eight or ten houses and 
a small gomba. 

We followed this valley to its head and after a short descent 
came on to the Len ch'u, a swift and clear river, about one hun- 
dred and fifty feet wide, coming from the north-northeast and 
flowing south. High limestone cliffs from 1500 to 2000 feet high 
overhang the river, those along the right bank rising nearly verti- 
cally. 

About two and a half miles down the river we forded it at a 
point where it was three feet deep, and then followed its left bank 
down to a point where, making a short but sharp bend westward, 
it empties into the Su ch'u, I think, in a gorge we saw a little way 
to the westward. There were numerous black tents in the Len 
ch'u gorges or high up on the mountain sides, but no signs of 
cultivation. 

Leaving the Len ch'u we turned eastward again up a short 
valley called Traze lung and camped on the mountain side about 
five miles from its head. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 277 

The country traversed to-day was very wild looking; occasional 
patches of grass, a little scrub brush, bare rocks and torrent beds 
piled up with debris, were the characteristic features of the land- 
scape. We only passed one caravan, about fifty yaks loaded with 
logs and poles and bound for the gomba above Ch'yi-chab on the 
Su ch'u. 

Anyang told me that the Pon ch'u, the Len ch'u and the 1 ch'u, 
which we will cross in a day or two, are the principal feeders of 
the Su ch'u, which lower down its course is called the Nu ch'u or 
Jyama Nu ch'u. The Su ch'u, he said, is held to be the main 
stream, though the Len ch'u and the Pon ch'u are nearly as large 
where we crossed them. 

August p. — It rained heavily during the night, and again this 
morning the rain began before we started and kept falling most 
of the day. 

We went out of the Traze lung by the head of the valley (called 
Traze la), and, after crossing a small stream coming out of a nar- 
row gorge of limestone rocks, its mouth marked by a great bare 
crag seven or eight hundred feet high, we climbed the Maja la and 
then turned southward along another feeder of the Su ch'u, whose 
name 1 could not learn. 

We went through a short gorge on entering this valley where 
there is a remarkable sandstone rock. It is a pillar some fifteen 
to twenty feet high and not over six or seven feet in diameter and 
stands alone in the middle of the gorge. A small stream of 
water trickles from the top of the rock. 1 was surprised that 
Anyang as well as the travelers who passed us at this point did 
not look upon this rock as having something supernatural about it, 
but passed it by without even throwing down a stone at its base. 

A few miles down this stream we again turned eastward and 
camped at a place called Gentse, where there are two or three 
Drupa and where grazing is splendid. All day we have skirted 
mountains of limestone formation. Here at Gentse I only notice 
red sandstone, but to the eastward, limestone reappears. 

To-day we passed another drove of yaks carrying poles and 
planks westward. I suppose that very little but local traffic goes 
over this road, the tea caravans most likely all come from Jyiikundo 
or pass south of here along the ja-lam. 

Rhubarb is very plentiful in all these valleys, the people use the 
dry stalks as a roofing for their little storehouses, putting a layer of 



278 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

earth on top of them. I have not seen a hare, a partridge or any 
other description of game, a few wild asses excepted (but they 
are not game), since entering the inhabited portion of Tibet. 
Birds are also very scarce, I have only noticed wild pigeons and 
they in small numbers.* 

The food of the people of Tibet met with on this journey consists 
of mutton, fresh or dried, tea, butter, tsamba, chura (not known, 
however, in Jyade), ti (a mixture of butter, sugar and chura, also 
unknown or very little used in Jyade), djo or tarak (sour milk), 
pima or cream cheese, chuoma (also called drotna),\ fresh and 
dried mushrooms {shara), wheaten cakes {palS), na-chang and 
arrak. Rice is occasionally used by the rich in Jyade, who eat it 
sweetened and with butter, or else it is boiled in milk. 

August 10. — It was raining fast when we started this morning 
and travel was very difficult and in many places dangerous, as the 
trail led along the steep flanks of the mountains and in many 
places on the brink of precipices three or four hundred feet deep. 

We skirted the base of a limestone range (apparently the same 
formation we have been seeing since coming to the Nashe ch'u), 
the little rivulets which flow down from its flanks emptying in all 
probability into the 1 ch'u now far south of our route. The ascent 
of the Medo la was very gradual, but the descent on the eastern 
side very precipitous and slippery. It brought us to the Ch'am 
ch'u, another good-sized river which empties into the 1 ch'u. 
Beyond this river the hillsides facing east were everywhere covered 
with rhubarb plants in full bloom or going to seed. None of the 
plants were over five feet high including the flower, which was 
frequently six or eight inches long. 

From the Ch'am ch'u we took a general southeasterly direction 
over a very rough country where we saw but few Drupa, until we 
finally came in sight of the I ch'u, a fine river flowing in a broad 
valley in a due east to west direction for about twelve miles, but 
taking a southerly or southwesterly bend at the point where we 
had come on to it. 

We camped in the I ch'u valley on the bank of a little stream 
which issues out of the mountains to the north. A large party of 
Golok and Amdo pilgrims on their way home from Lh'asa met us 

*On the fauna and the butterflies of Tibet, see H. Bower, op. cit., 115. 
f Bonvalot {op. cit. , 344) speaks of chuoma, but calls it nioutna. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 279 

here, and 1 had to give a tanka to each to silence their incessant 
cries of Suru, sum, kutsi ri, sum Pbnbo la ("Charity, Charity, 
sir"), a call which neither the Namru nor the Jyade people have 
accustomed me to. 

August IT. — We have now struck the ja-lam or "tea-route" 
which comes down the I ch'u valley, and parallel to which we 
have been traveling ever since leaving the Dang ch'u. It is a 
much traveled and well beaten highway, and crosses the river in 
front of a little Bonbo lamasery about two miles above where 
we camped last night. 

The I ch'u was much swollen by the incessant rains and so deep 
at the ford that Anyang, who led the way, had to swim his horse 
and his little mule that always follows him about like a dog, got 
its load soaked. We stayed on the right bank of the river for a 
few miles more, and finally came to a better ford where the water 
was about four feet deep. 

Little more than two miles beyond where we crossed the river 
we came to where its main branch issues out of the mountains to 
the north, and as far up its course as 1 could trace it, it flowed 
in a south-southwest direction. We continued up the valley 
of the eastern branch of the river, the road running most of 
the way along the slippery, steep sides of the mountains, four 
hundred or five hundred feet above the stream; on our left was a 
high range of bare, slate and red sandstone mountains, whose 
peaks rose 3,000 to 3,500 feet above the river. 

By a hardly perceptible ascent we reached the head of the valley, 
and passing into that of Ange lung (or nong), camped near some 
tents, high up on the side of the mountains at whose base flows a 
brook emptying, 1 learnt, into the Rama ch'u, a few miles to the 
east of us. 

Drupa are very numerous in the Ange lung; within three or 
four miles I counted about forty. From where we have camped 
I can see to the east the dark black Ramnong gangri, its upper 
part covered with eternal snow.* It is a striking landmark. 
Facing us on the south is the pastern end of the range which we 

*Gang ri [gangs ri) means "ice mountains." Though I speak of the Ramnong 
ri as a separate massif, divided by the valley of the Rama ch'u from the mountains 
south of Ange lung and the 1 ch'u, it is really but a continuation of it, a section of 
one long chain. 



28o JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

skirted in the I ch'u valley; it here reaches to a greater height 
than along that valley, and a few miles east of our camp its sum- 
mits are covered with snow. 

Though we have been traveling constantly among Bonbos since 
entering Jyade, 1 have not been able to detect any very marked 
peculiarities in their religious usages. The names of their gods, 
Ch'ijjong and Yidam (guardian and patron divinities) are peculiar 
to them ; they turn their prayer wheels and walk around sacred 
monuments from right to left. They make tsa-tsa, raise mani 
v/alls and incise prayers on stones like the lamaists, though in the 
case o^ mani stones they more frequently cut on them the formula 
Otn, matri muye sali* hdu than Om tnani padmi , hum. They make, 
however, pilgrimages to Lh'asa and the sacred places of Tibet, 
their priests shave their heads, and their gombas are architecturally 
like those of the orthodox church; the first, eighth, fifteenth and 
twenty-fourth of each moon are also their principal days of prayer. 

We passed to-day several large tea caravans coming from 
Ch'amdo and going to Lh'asa; most of the pack animals were 
yaks, though there were quite a number of small mules. The 
caravan people looked like Horba, but I did not speak to them. 

August 12. — Last night was clear and cold; the minimum 
thermometer fell to -|-2o°. The sun shone brightly this morning 
and we spread all our belongings out to dry, and consequently 
started quite late. The Ramnong gangri looked most beautiful 
in the rays of the morning sun; this mountain appears to be the 
culminating point of the limestone range which we have been 
skirting for so many days. 

Shortly before we left, a high Bonbo lama, who was stopping 
for a few days in one of the tents near which we were camped, 
came to our camp. Anyang, who is a brother {gets-ulox genyen) 
of the Bonbo order, saluted him in a peculiar fashion, the like of 
which I have not heretofore seen. He kotowed three times, and 
then both of them crouched in front of each other and made their 
heads touch. 

A few miles below camp we came to the timber line and found 
a number of stunted juniper trees growing on the hillsides, most 
of them on slopes facing eastward. Rhubarb was also very 

* Bonvalot {op. cit., 358) transcribes this formula "Ome ma te me ie sa le deu." 
On tsa-tsa and ntani walls, see Land of the Lamas, 250, 257. 








a 
1. Red earthenware teapot (Lh'asa). (U. 2. Red earthenware teapot (Lhasa) (U 

S. N. M. 167231 a.) S. N. M. I(i7'231 b.) ' ' 

3. Black earthenware teapot, decorated with bits of ehinaware, brass lid Lifane) 

(U. S. N. M. 167231 c.) 
4. Wooden bowl (Lit'ang). (D. S. N. M. 5. Copper teapot (Derg6). (U S X M 

loi230.) 131038.) 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 281 

abundant in spots similarly exposed. A mile or so farther on we 
came to the Rama ch'u which, at the ford, was three to four feet 
deep and one hundred and fifty feet wide. This river here enters 
a deep gorge for over a mile, and we skirted it high up on the 
mountain side, through what we all thought the most beautiful 
scenery we had ever seen, fresh as we were from nearly a year of 
desert travel. From the rocky sides of the snow-capped mountains, 
along the right bank of the river, the water came tumbling down 
in sheets of foam into the swift, clear river which dashed over the 
great rocks filling its bed; there were green trees and birds singing 




Ak^ggsg^- '-^'■*>^-^ - ^^^^ ' >.^!iiii-)^'i>>.J>> ,,/j . 






IRON PADLOCK (I.h'asa). 



in their branches, and wild flowers, and beyond the end of the 
gorge we saw a few patches of barley enclosed within rough 
hedges or low walls of stone. 

The valley beyond the gorge took a southeast direction around 
the base of the mountains and we followed it down to where 
the river again enters a gorge. Here the valley is called Yang- 
amdo* (the last syllable pronounced da), and another stream, 

*Capt. Bower calls the Rama ch'u the Lan chu. Yangamdo he calls Yangmando 
(camp 105). Leaving this point he followed a more roundabout way than 1 till our 
routes met again in the Batasumdo valley. 



282 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

now nearly dry, coming from the western slope of the Ramnong 
ch'u, empties into the Rama. We camped at this spot where 
grazing was splendid and the river offered facilities for bathing not 
to be overlooked by such a way-stained traveler as I. 

About half a mile from where we have camped there is a little 
Bonbo gomba; this and two or three little houses higher up the 
valley are the only permanent dwellings we have seen in the 
Rama lung. 

Flies and mosquitoes have been quite troublesome to-day. 

The people of Jyade, when wishing to assert the truthfulness 
of a statement they have made, draw the thumb of the right hand 
down the middle of their faces and say "Kon-ch'og sum," " In the 
name of the Three Holies." 

August ij. — We left the Rama ch'u a few miles below camp 
and crossed a very steep and rather high pass leading into the 
basin of the Ramnong ch'u. After going about twelve miles 
along a stream which has its source in the mountains we had 
just crossed, we came to the Ramnong ch'u itself, a large mountain 
torrent flowing in a general southerly direction with its sources in 
the Ramnong gangri. 

On the sides of the mountains overlooking, the Rama ch'u, we 
passed a number of women picking ramba, the seeds of which, 
when dried and ground, are mixed with tsamba and eaten, and 
this adds one more to the very small list of native dishes. These 
women told me that it ^as jimbo, jimbo ri, "very, very good," 
but they are not hard to please.* 

Not far below the summit of the pass we came to little culti- 
vated patches of ground, each surrounded with a fence of brush 
or of poles ; a few of the latter were, by the way, spruce saplings, 
yet I did not notice any of this species of tree growing, but 
suppose they must be found in neighboring gorges. Near each 
little field was a small stone house, usually of two stories, a room 
on each floor; most of them were closed, 1 suppose the people at 
this season of the year are living higher up the valleys with their 

* Ramba is Polygonum, viviparum, Linn. See Appendix. Jaeschke, Tib. 
Engl. Did., s. v. Ram-bu says that Ram-bu or na-ram is Polygonum vivi- 
parum. Rampa, he says {s. v.) is "quick- {quitch) grass." 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 283 

flocks and herds. We saw several small fields of turnips {^yoma),'^ 
and we could not resist the temptation of stealing a few ; and this 
evening I have eaten them, tops and all, the first dish of vegetables 
I have tasted this year. Anyang says there is a better variety of 
turnips, called la-pi (the Chinese lo-po), grown in the valleys of 
lesser altitude, also cabbages {pS-tse). 

Just as we came to the confluence of the stream we have been 
following down from the pass with the Ramnong ch'u, we met a 
very large tea caravan. It belonged to Ch'amdo men and they 
were bound for Lh'asa; there were between six hundred and eight 
hundred yaks in it. 

We camped on the banks of the Ramnong ch'u and received 
many visitors with whom 1 did a little trading, buying a quantity 
of excellent musk for twelve rupees a pod. The district in which 
we now are is called Gela and, together with Angnong (or lung), 
where we camped on the eleventh, belongs to Lh'asa. The reason 
for this is that the people in these two districts belong, not to the 
Bonbo persuasion, but to the Gelug or orthodox lamaist sect of 
Lh'asa, and have therefore naturally sought and obtained Lh'asan 
protection. 

The mountain sides all along the route to-day were tolerably well 
covered with stunted juniper trees and the grazing was every- 
where wonderfully good, considering the number of yaks and 
other animals constantly feeding here. 

Anyang told me that throughout Jyade and Lh'asa polyandry 
exists, and that it is quite common for brothers, no matter how 
many they may be, to have only one wife.f 

August 14.. — After following up the Ramnong ch'u for a couple 
of miles we ascended a side valley which led up to a rather high 

* Yoma is known to the Chinese as chieh-isai, which term applies also to the 
mustard plant. Jaeschke gives the names for turnips as nyung-ma and adds that 
"in writing and speaking this word is often confounded with j?^;;^^, 'mustard,' 
sothat^. .^., ytmgs-ma is said for turnips instead of nyung-ma, nyung-dkar 
for white mustard instead of jj/KW^^-^/^ar." The confusion consequently exists in 
both languages. 

fConf. Bower, op. cit., 65, Bonvalot, op. cit., 354 et seq. I think the latter 
writer is wrong in assuming that several men, not brothers, have the same wife. 
The practice of having one concubine (chyimi) among several men is common 
enough, however, among traders both in Tibet and in the Ts'aidam. See also on 
Tibetan polyandry, Land of the Lamas, 211 et seq. 



284 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

pass, crossing which we descended to the Batasumdo valley. 
This latter valley is a very wide one for fhis region, probably not 
less than half a mile in width where we crossed it. Three good- 
sized streams meet here and empty into the Po ch'u which comes 
from the east.* The river below the point where it receives these 
streams bears the name of Batasumdo ch'u, though Po ch'u 
would be a better one. 

In the Batasumdo valley I saw several little hamlets ; the valley 
to the north is closed by a huge mass of absolutely bare rocks, 
rising to above the snow line, and forming an eastern extension 
of the Ramnong gangri. We ascended the Po ch'u for a few 
miles, the river flowing in a deep gorge of slate, of which rock 
the country hereabout is principally formed — the trail in places 
overhanging the river four hundred or five hundred feet high. 

We camped on a steep hillside near some black tents, where we 
bought a quantity of delicious djo, a delicacy we never can get 
enough of. This part of the valley is called Po laga or Po latsa. 
All over the rocks around our camp clematis is in bloom, its large 
yellow flowers the finest we have seen on the journey. 

The women in the Po ch'u valley have a coiffure which differs 
slightly from that worn anywhere else. Instead of the broad 
band of red, green, and black stuff covered with beads and silver 
ornaments attached to the plaits of hair and hanging down the 
middle of the back, they run all the shorter plaits from a little below 
their shoulders, into one big Chinese queue, reaching to the ground, 
and this they cover with coral and turquoise beads. They also 
wear earrings, an ornament not seen by me on the women to the 
west of this place, though they may be worn there, for I never 
saw any women with their finest apparel on. 

August 15. — We did nothing to-day but go up and down, 
crossing four high passes, the Po la, Drohe la, Noshe la and Ma 
la, and the descent from the Ma la was very steep and rough. 
The valleys, or rather gorges, along which our route led were 
between mountains of red sandstone on our left, and of slate and 
schists on our right, the latter rising 2,000 or 3,000 feet above the 
bottom of the valleys. 

* Bonvalot, op. cit., 346, gives this valley its right name, Bata-Soumdo, but Bower 
{pp. cit., 60) calls it Pata Samdo and says "it is situated on the banks of the Mo 
chu." 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 285 

From the summits of the Po la and Drohe la, on what I took 
for an eastern continuation of the Ramnong gangri chain and to 
the east of the peaks at the head of Batasumdo, I saw vast snow 
fields and several snow-covered peaks; the range in which they 
were ran a little south of east. 

From the summit of the Ma la we saw green fields and fortress- 
like hamlets in a broad valley running southward, a wide, swift 
river, beating against the foot of the rocks on which these build- 
ings stand. This is the Seremdo ch'u valley,* and the river is, 
according to Anyang, an affluent of the Su ch'u. 

We camped near some black tents, at a placed called Churema, 
several miles before reaching the cultivated part of the valley. 
Speaking of black tents, it is interesting to note that the people 
use the word Drupa, which properly only applies to the persons 
inhabiting such abodes and leading pastoral lives, to designate 
the dwelling, the black yak-hair tent itself, or even more correctly 
the word seems to have the sense of " home, dwelling." Thus 
they say A^ia: drupa-la drogi-re, "I am going to my tent, 1 am 
going home." 

Anyang is most careful not to eat any but the food he prepares 
himself, he will not even use his tea churn after us until it has been 
well washed. 1 cannot believe he is afraid of our poisoning him, 
though he eats and drinks with other natives; it may possibly be 
on account of his being a Bonbo lama, yet I do not see what 
that has got to do with it. 

For the last few days all the people from whom we have wished 
to buy anything have invariably asked for cotton wool in exchange 
for their wares. They use it for making matches for their guns 
and for wicks in their butter lamps, they prefer it to buttons or 
any of the other knickknacks we have. 

In the low valleys (/. e., below 13,000 feet above sea level) half 
breed yaks (^dzo) and domestic cattle {ba-lang) are quite numerous, 
whereas in the country above that level 1 have seen none, and 
suppose the climate is too severe for them. Even at this lower 
elevation the nights are very cold, the thermometer falling every 
night to 8° or 10° belcfw the freezing point. 1 am surprised to 

* Bonvalot's Sere-Soumdo, Bower's Sari Samdo or Samdu. The latter writer calls 

the Seremdo ch'u the Sa ch'u. See Bower, op. ciL, 61. He calls the little stream 

which flows from the Ma la into the Seremdo ch'u the Lachu. On d'Anville's Carte 
Gen'e du Thibet this river is called Seri Samtou. 



286 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

find that barley and turnips can stand such an amount of cold and 
have time to ripen at all. 

I have frequently spoken to Tibetans about the great river 
which flows eastward, passing by Shigatse and south of Lh'asa. 
They all call it the Tsang-gi tsangpo, " The river of Tsang" {i. e., 
Ulterior Tibet). No one knows of any other name for it, and it 
is quite as good a one as Yaru tsangpo, by which we usually 
speak of it, and which only means " The river from up-country." 

August i6. — Last night thieves sneaked into camp at about 
10.30 P. M. It was very dark and we have no dogs — 1 gave them 
to the Namru fearing their fierceness in thickly settled districts. 
They stole the Lao-han's saddle from under his head. The clatter 
of the stirrup-irons on the ground as they dragged it along 
wakened me, and running out I fired off my revolver twice; 1 
feared they had stolen the ponies, which were picketed at some 
distance from the tent. We finally found the horses; they had 
not been touched, and one of the men stumbled over the saddle 
which the thieves had probably dropped when I fired the revolver. 
We all slept with only one eye closed for the rest of the night, 
but we were not troubled again. 

As we advance eastward, the people grow more and more 
importunate in begging; the best dressed among them are not 
ashamed to ask for charity; " Stiru kutsi-ri, Fdnbo Rinpochi,'' 
(" Charity, please your Excellency,") is a cry we now incessantly 
hear. The lamas and ani who beg are less objectionable, though 
equally persistent. They come and squat down beside the fire, but 
at a respectful distance, ask for nothing, but stay there mumbling 
their prayers till they have received some food or money. You 
cannot drive them away; they stay till they shame you into giving 
them something, but they are content with little, while the 
others cannot be satisfied, the more you give, the more they want. 

Following the valley down a couple of miles we came to the 
Seremdo ch'u, which appeared to issue out of the flanks of a 
great massif of bare and snow-covered mountains to the north, 
which we saw indistinctly through the clouds and mist which 
hung over them, filling the upper part of the valley. The valley 
for a few miles below where we came on it was quite broad, the 
hillsides dotted with numerous hamlets and the soil everywhere 
cultivated, barley and wheat nearly ripe, some of it already on 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 287 

the scaffolds on the tops of the houses where the sheaves of grain 
are put to dry. 

We crossed the river by a rope, in the same manner as we had 
the Su ch'u; the horses and mules reached the farther bank very 
much worn out from swimming across the rapid stream. We 
met here a large party of Chinese traders from Lh'asa on their 
way back to that place; they said that they usually followed this 
route as it was much easier than the high road, and grazing was 
better along it. They said it would take me forty days to reach 
Ta-chien-lu. Here again I heard that two foreigners had reached 
Ta-chien-lu in the early part of the year after having crossed 
Tibet; the traders volunteered the information that they were 
Americans, but I think that in this particular they drew on their 
imaginations. 

About a mile below the ferry we came to the mouth of the Ru 
ch'u, a good-sized stream flowing down a valley trending east- 
southeast. The road led up this valley, which we found to be 
well cultivated and thickly peopled, most of the houses standing 
detached in the midst of well-fenced fields. The mountains on 
either side of this valley rise some 2500 to 3000 feet above the 
river bed, and to the north, beyond the range which borders the 
river, is another parallel range, probably 4000 feet high. We have 
so far not seen a range of mountains in this country trending in 
any other direction than east and west. 

After traveling a few miles up the Ru ch'u we camped at a place 
called Sagotong where there was a good-sized farm house, the 
people of which let us put up our tent inside their fence at the 
base of a big boulder. Just opposite us, high up on a bluff on the 
left bank of the river, is a small gomba called Trashi-ling.* It 
belongs to the Gelug-pa sect, and is governed by a lama sent from 
Lh'asa, and who is changed every two years. Probably the 
country south of this river belongs to Lh'asa, but I can hear noth- 
ing definite on the subject. Deba djong is in the habit of estab- 
lishing its authority in a country by founding in the first place a 
lamasery or two in it, the abbots of which gradually gain the 
people over to the yellow church, and so finally the local Ponbo 

*Bonvalot's Tachiline {op. cit., 366). His road led along the south side of the 
Ru ch'u. He says that the gomba has two hundred akas. Bower also camped on 
the south side of the river beside the lamasery, which he calls (op, cit. , 64) Tashiling. 



288 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

"ties his head" to Lh'asa, and the abbot becomes civil as well 
as religious ruler. 

The women on the Ru ch'u wear earrings similar to those worn 
in the Ts'aidam {i. e., a large hoop of silver with three stones set 
in heart shape on a small plate of silver and fixed on it) ; most of 
those I have seen have earrings in both ears, but not of the same 
pattern. 

August ly. — A few miles east of where we camped last night 
we came to a bend in the valley and found out that the Ru ch'u 
comes from the north, probably from the same chain of mountains 
out of which the Seremdo ch'u issues. It is more than likely that 
both these streams, and nearly all the water courses of Tibet pre- 
sent the same peculiarity, have their heads on the farther sides of 
the mountains from which they flow. 

We crossed the river by a rickety wooden bridge of the Tibetan 
cantilever description, and after passing a large Bonbo lamasery in 
which live some two hundred lamas, we crossed by a very easy 
ascent the Chung-nyi la,* and entered another valley trending 
east-southeast. Anyang told me that we were here in the valley 
of the Ze ch'u, or Zu ch'u, or Zom ch'u, for it has these three names. 

In the upper part of the valley down which we traveled this after- 
noon we only saw black tents, herds of yaks and flocks of sheep 
and goats, while the Ru ch'u valley, which we had just left, and 
which cannot be more than five hundred feet lower than it, is as 
closely cultivated as a Swiss valley. By the way, the tlat roofs, 
very broad for such small inside accommodation as these houses 
offer, the rough stone walls and pig-sty condition of these houses 
remind one of the farm houses in some parts of Switzerland, 
especially around the Italian lakes, and in the Ticino. 

We camped at the mouth of a little gorge opening onto the 
main valley, at a place called Biwakanag, a mile or so above 
where the Rongwa or cultivated country begins. We have had a 
hard day's work, yet, notwithstanding the lameness of the mules, 
we have ridden twenty-three miles. 

Anyang told me that the present political organization of the 

. Jyade dates back ever so long ago, from the time when the Great 

Emperor (Go7ig-tna ch'en-po) interfered in the affairs of Tibet to 

* Bower's Chuni la. He calls the Ze ch'u the Kom cho. He made one march 
from Trashiling to Chebo tenchin. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 289 

make peace between Deba djong and the Bonbo-inhabited country. 
I suppose he has in mind the Chinese expedition to Tibet in 1719. 
Orthodox countries, Anyang and all Bonbo generally call Pen-de or 
Ch'u de, and Bonbo countries Bon de.* I am also told that the 
Bonbo have incarnate lamas. This sect interests me greatly, but it 
is very difficult to learn much about it, as the Tibetan people, both 
the Bonbo and the orthodox ones, are adverse to talking about 
religious questions, and they furthermore, the head lamas possibly 
excepted, know little about them. The great extension of the 
Bonbo faith, has not, I think, been fully realized heretofore; from 
what I have learned on this journey, it is found in all Tibetan 
countries, exclusive of some districts governed by Lh'asa, in which 
country it is, or was until recently, persecuted. Along the Chinese 
frontier from the Koko-nor to Ta-chien-lu, the Ts'arong and A-tun- 
tzu it is flourishing. 

When on the Po ch'u I was joined by a little Amdo lama on his 
way back to his country from a two years' pilgrimage to Central 
Tibet. He asked me to put his little load, tied to his k'ur-shing, on 
one of the mules, and as he walked along beside us he made him- 
self so pleasant that we quickly took a fancy to him, and I asked 
him to go to Ta-chien-lu with me. He was delighted with the 
offer; he can now travel swiftly on without having to beg, and 
will have plenty to eat and drink. We have not seen a caravan 
in the country without a few such pilgrims attached to it; every 
one thinks it will insure good luck to help them on their way. 

August 18. — It rained all night, and this morning the road was 
so muddy and slippery that we had to go most of the way on 
foot, leading our worn out ponies. The valley ran in a general 
east-southeast direction; an immense amount of dibris has been 
swept down into it from the mountains on the north side, in places 
reaching a depth of one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet. 

* A K says " Buddhism is the religion of the country; there are two sects, 

one named Nangba and the other Chiba or Baimbu." Explorations made by 

A K , 34. Nangba means " Esoteric," Chiba {p'yi-ba), " Exoteric, "and 

Baimbu is Bonbo. Capt. Bower {op. cit., 62) has it that " Tibet is a good deal 
split up amongst these rival sects of Panboo and Pindah. * * * There is a good 
deal of rivalry and bad feeling between these two sects." From the mode of circum- 
ambulating followed by his Panboo {loc. cit.), it appears that they are Bonbos. 
The word " Pindah " looks remarkably like Bon de, but Bower must use it to designate 
the orthodox sect or Ch'ii de, the meaning I was told it had. 



290 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

Even in the more favored spots of the Rongwa the huge piles of 
stones heaped up in every field corner testify to its stony nature, 
and show the immense amount of work that farming requires in 
this country. 

About a mile and a half below our camp of last night we came 
to a village which marks the upper limit of cultivation in this 
valley, and from this point on fields of barley and turnips, farm 
houses and hamlets often or more houses were constantly passed. 
We forded the Ze ch'u a little above the big village of Ten-chin (or 
Chyi-bo Ten chin), the chief village of Kar Pai-hu, and near which 
is a large Bonbo lamasery with some four hundred or five hun- 
dred akas. We were now in Nar Pai-hu,* the home of my good 
friend, the Deba Nor jyal-ts'an. 

After passing through a number of hamlets surrounded by fields 
of barley, we came to a little valley at the foot of a steep cliff on 
the top of which is perched the village of Lah'a,t the capital of 
the Nar district, but a great deal smaller than Ten-chin. Anyang 
had reached his home. Leaving us in the care of the headman 
of the village, he went off to his own house, a few miles up a 
side valley which opens onto the Ze ch'u at this point. He will 
be back to-morrow with a fresh pony for himself, and possibly 
one or two to exchange for some of mine, which are no longer 
able to put one foot before the other. 

The people are very friendly ; men, women and children do all 
in their power to be of service to me, bringing me fuel, water, sho, 
and milk.J They tell me that I am camped on the very spot where 
a few months before two foreigners camped. One of these p'yling 
had a light beard and both were young men ; they had a great 
many horses, an interpreter {lotsa), and were eight men all told. 

Towards evening a man from Kar Pai-hu' dressed up in all his 
finest apparel, wearing a splendid earring, lots of rings and a big 

* Bower places Nar (his Naru) on the north side of the river, and Kar (his Karu) on 
the south side. He is wrong. Bonvalot {op. dt., 367) speaks of the rivalry existing 
between Tchimbo-Tingi and Tchimbo-Nara. 

f Khemo Tinchin of Bower. 

X Capt. Bower's experience with these people does not appear to have been as 
agreeable as mine. See op. cit., 65. Bonvalot also had a row a little lower down 
the valley because the people, not being willing to sell him a sheep, he tried "de 
nous procurer de la viande sans permission" {op. cit., 368). I cannot but think 
the people were justified in what they did. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 291 

Chinese straw hat, rode up, and getting off his horse came into 
my tent. He took out a k'atag, laid one end of it on my table 
the other on the ground, placed a tanka on it as a present, and 
then, seeing that no one was looking, handed me a very soiled 
piece of foolscap and asked me to read what was written on it. 
It was in English and said that the bearer had supplied transport, 
fodder and grain to Captain H. Bower, 17th Bengal Cavalry, and 
was dated at Tinring (Ten chin ?), 17th December, 1891. 

This then is the leader of the party of foreigners whom I have 
so frequently heard mentioned. I suppose he came from Kashgaria 
to near the northwest corner of the Tengri nor, thence to north 
of Nagch'uk'a where he took the Ja lam as far as the Seremdo 
ch'u, from which point he must have followed the same road 1 
have. I heard when at Sagot'ong that foreigners had stopped at 
the Thrashiling gomba, so they probably did not come up the Ru 
ch'u valley but crossed the Seremdo ch'u some eight or ten miles 
below where 1 did. 

When I had told this man, whose name was Tame-wang-den, 
the meaning of the note, he asked me to write something on the 
same page, and I satisfied him; but 1 hope the next traveler who 
comes this way will not translate to him what 1 said. I then gave 
him a rupee as a return present, and seeing that 1 wanted neither 
horses nor any thing from him, he took his departure. 

I heard that there is a rough trail leading directly from Mer 
djong to Bat'ang without passing through Ch'amdo, and 1 will 
endeavor to follow it, for if 1 keep to the highroad 1 will be wasting 
time, as I suppose Captain Bower has already surveyed it. 

To-day a dwarf came to my camp; he is the first one I have 
seen in Tibet. He was about three feet four inches high, well 
shaped, with a good clear voice, not at all sharp. He would not 
tell his age, or rather he said he did not know it, but I took him 
to be between thirty and thirty-five years old. I also saw a 
woman near Ten-chin with a small goitre.* I have watched 
most carefully for evidences of this disease ^but have seen none 
before to-day. 

* In a well known Tibetan work by the famous Saskya Pandita, but originally 
written in Sanskrit witii the title Subhashita ratna nidhi, occurs the following : 
" They who misuse their talents, 
Despise those who use them aright; 
In certain countries to be without a goitre {Lba-wa) 
Is held to be a deformity." 



292 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

August ig. — I bought a number of things from Poyul, a lance, 
red peppers, blankets and excellent flour. The best style of 
workmanship I have seen in Tibet is that of Po-ma or Lower 
Poyul. I learned that there is a road leading there from Nar Pai-hu 
and passing through Shobando.* It takes about fifteen days to 
get there, and from what I can gather it must be a well settled, 
prosperous place, considerably warmer than any part of Tibet I 
have seen. The iron work and silverware of Po-ma are famous, 
as are also the horses of that country, whose hoofs, I am told, are 
so hard that months of constant work in the roughest country 
will not wear them out.f Bamboo appears to be extensively 
used in Po-ma; a long joint of it covered over with red and white 
wickerwork and used as a vessel for keeping na-cK'ang in, was 




BAMBOO TEA-STRAINER. 
(Ch'amdo.) 



brought me for sale. The earthenware teapots used throughout 
the Jayde country are nicely made and of three or four patterns. A 
small pot is used to infuse tea in, "to make stock" as cooks, I 
believe, would call it. A quantity of tea is put in it, together 
with a little soda, and it is allowed to simmer until all the strength 
of the tea is extracted. A little of this concentrated tea is added 
to each kettle of fresh tea when boiled. 

Anyang came back early this morning, and brought me a sheep, 
some butter and tsamba as a present. With him came a man 
who had a couple of small ponies, which 1 finally took in exchange 

*On Poyul and especially Po-ma, see under date October 5th. 

\ "The Embassy which had left Nipal in 1852 for Peking with the quinquennial 
tribute from the Nipalese to the Chinese government, arrived at Balaji. * * They 
brought back with them about one hundred China and Pumi ponies," H. A. Old- 
field, Sketches from Nipal, 1, 411. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 293 

for two of mine, though the new ones will certainly not be able 
to go farther than Ch'amdo. Anyang said that he heard last night 
that there were four foreigners in Capt. Bower's party and eight 
servants. One of the servants spoke Tibetan, and there was also 
a Mongol and a Chinaman with him. 

We left at about nine o'clock and followed the right bank of the 
river for nearly five and one-half miles till we came to a bridge, 
about a mile west of the Bonbo gomba of Gunegon.* Crossing 
the river we took a trail along the flank of the mountains, here of 
red sandstone and sandstone conglomerate, and some 1500 to 2000 
feet above the river. We have camped in a nook in the hills about 
one and one-half miles above Pene ringu. Below us and near the 
river bank we can see numerous villages; near each of them is a 
small gomba. 

The country along the right bank of the Ze ch'u from the bridge 
at Gunegon eastward is part of the Lh'o-rong district and under 
Deba djong rule. A trail runs along the Lh'o-rong djong side of 
the river, but is very rough and being on Lh'asa soil, is not usually 
followed by Jyade people. 

Along the bank of the Ze ch'u I noticed to-day some men 
gathering from a briar bush what looked like small yellow goose- 
berries, f On inquiry I was told that a dye was extracted from 
the fruit. A little below Lah'a I saw a field of peas in flower, the 
first we have met with. At Gunegon all the lamas were reading 
prayers and drinking tea on a hilltop, while the people were 
ploughing the surrounding fields. The women wore a peculiar 
form of ornament on their hair, a disk of silver set with turquoises 
on the forehead, and a cap of silver of the same style just covering 
the crown. It resembled somewhat the ornament worn by the 
women in the Horba| and Lit'ang countries, but 1 have seen 
nothing like it on this journey. 

* Bower (p. 65) calls this picturesque lamasery Baru, and Khembo Baru on his map. 
He and Bonvalot followed the bottom of the valley until near Mer djong, when they 
crossed the river by a bridge and took a road to Riwoche more direct, I think, than 
the one 1 followed. 

fPrjevalsky Mongolia, II, 79, mentions a "gooseberry {Ribes sp.) in large 
bushes ten feet high, with big yellowish bitter berries," growing in the border land 
of Western Kan-su. 

JSee La7id of the Lamas, 244. 



294 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

Anyang says he has taken us by this little used trail so as to 
keep out of the way of the people who are not to be relied upon, 
are quarrelsome and great thieves.* 

Augtist 20. — We left at a very early hour, for we wanted to 
reach Mer djong gomba before night, and continued in an east- 
southeast direction along the flank of the mountains. Some eight 
miles east of our camp of last night, the Ze ch'u turns south and 
enters a narrow gorge, the rocks on either side rising nearly verti- 
cally 2000 or 3000 feet. I noticed that in this range south of the 
Ze ch'u the strata were parallel to the axis of the range (west- 
northwest and east-southeast) with a nearly vertical dip. They 
appeared to me to be of limestone formation. 

We descended very gradually as we advanced and finally came 
in view of Mer djong, the great emporium of which we have for 
the last month or so heard so much. It was a great disappoint- 
ment; a few low, mud buildings around a central court in which 
grew one good-sized poplar was all there was of this great center 
of trade, where we had been told time after time that we could 
buy everything we wanted. About fifty Akas of the Gelupa sect, 
an abbot, who is also governor of the district {Djong-pon), and 
a few miser composed the population of the place. 

We camped about two hundred yards east of the gomba and 
near a large pool of water. The riverf is at least six hundred feet 
lower than the Djong and is not visible from it; I hear that there 
is a bridge over it at the foot of the slope on which Mer djong 
stands. Looking southwestward I can see a zigzag trail winding 
up the very steep and rugged mountain side; it leads to Lh'o- 
rong and Shobando, while to the eastward we can distinguish 
another trail leading over some hills, J this is, I am told, the main 
road to Ch'amdo. As the country south of here is Lh'asa, not 
Ch'amdo territory, I suppose 1 will not be allowed to take the 
latter road. 

1 nearly omitted noting that about seven miles west of Mer 
djong in a little side valley down which flows a pretty brook, we 

* Probably he had in mind the rows of Bonvalot and Bower when passing along 
this way. 

t Capt. Bower calls it the Tasichu and Bonvalot Ta-tchou. The former makes 
no reference of Mer djong, only mentions its name (Maru). Bonvalot {pp. cit., 372) 
appears to refer to it, but calls it Tchoungo. 

X It was followed by both Bonvalot and Bower. It crosses the Nam la. 



TOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 295 

crossed the direct Riwoche road. It goes over the hills at the 
eastern end of this little valley without passing by Mer djong. 
This valley, by the way, marks the boundary between Jyade and 
Ch'amdo, between Lamaism and Bonboism. 

The country all around Mer djong is well cultivated; barley, a 
little wheat, cabbages, onions, peas and turnips, are the principal 
crops. I noticed very few cattle and no sheep. 

We find everything extremely dear at the gomba; we had to 
pay a tanka for a few sticks of cedar for fuel; there was no milk 
to be had, and ch'ang was as dear as firewood. Since the 14th it 
has rained every evening and usually during the night, and though 
I have been on the watch for a bit of clear sky to get a few obser- 
vations, and have been up at all hours of the night, I have failed 
to see a patch of blue sky as big as my hat. Since reaching the 
inhabited parts of the country I have given up drawing, writing 
or taking observations in the day time, it causes too much 
comment, and I do not want to create undue suspicion. 

August 21. — The Djong-pon called Anyang to his house early 
this morning and told him that I must not take the highroad, it 
passed on Deba djong territory and he might get in trouble if he 
allowed me to follow it. He said there were three or four other 
roads leading to Ch'amdo, and that 1 could follow any one of them. 
I sent him word that so long as I did not take the one followed by 
Capt. Bower I did not care, all 1 asked him for was a guide. He 
promptly sent a man who will take me a day's journey on my way, 
and then find me guides to Riwoche, or Roche, as the name is 
locally pronounced. 

1 gave Anyang fifty rupees and as many presents as I could spare, 
and we saw the good fellow get on his horse and leave us with 
deep regret, so much had he endeared himself to all of us. He 
and his master, Nor jyal-ts'an, will always be remembered by us 
as the best friends we ever had in Tibet, with the exception always 
of the good old K'amba chief Nyamts'o Purdung, who helped me 
on my first journey. 

Just as we were leaving Mer djong three men came out of the 
Djong wearing the heaviest kind of cangue {tsego) and loaded 
down with chains big enough to hold an elephant, and begged us 
for a little tsamba. 1 thought they must be criminals of the worst 
description, but learned that they had done nothing worse than 



296 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

break the severe game laws which prohibit throughout many 
districts of Tibet, the killing of animals. These poor fellows had 
shot deer and were paying with three or four months of this 
degrading punishment for their crime. The cangue has been 
introduced into Tibet by the Chinese, and has become a favorite 
mode of punishment throughout the country, but it is a much 
heavier arrangement here than is usually seen in China. 

Crossing a good-sized stream coming down from the north we 
took a general northeast course over two high mountains, the 
second, called the Nanyi la, especially trying, as it was one mass of 
broken rock over which even the mules had a very hard time 
picking their way. We made, however, about nineteen miles 
and camped in a valley called Pomundo, its head a couple of miles 
to our east. A small stream flows down it and, turning north 
at the point where we have camped, empties, I am told, into the 
Ke ch'u, a big river which we will reach to-morrow. 

We are here again in Jyade, and the chief of the district is known 
as the Huchesha Ponbo. There are ten or twelve black tents 
near our camp, and we can see more farther up the valley. Two 
men came from one of the tents and volunteered to guide us to 
Riwoche in two days for a rupee apiece a day. They say that 
the country between here and that town is uninhabited, and that 
Chakba (brigands) infest the Ze ch'u valley. From what they 
tell me I fear that the road is a very bad one, but I expect we 
have seen as bad before; I have still to see a good road in Tibet. 

It rained a little this morning, but a northerly breeze sprang up 
towards evening, and for the first time since the 14th, the sky 
to-night is perfectly clear. 

When Tibetans, whether they be lamaists or Bonbo, pass by a 
labsieon a mountain top, they usually hang a bit of rag on one of the 
twigs stuck up in the pile of stones, throw a stone on the pile and 
shout at the top of their voices, "Lh'ajya-lo, Ih'ajya-lo, oh, oh, 
oh!" I have been told that this means " A hundred years, Spirit 
(of the mountain), a hundred years. Spirit (of the mountain)," by 
which "grant me a hundred years " is meant.* Bonbo, of course 
walk by the labste keeping it on their left side. 

Augjisf 22. — Though the Pomundo valley, which we followed 
up to its head this morning, is not over three miles long, I counted 

*■ It is also interpreted by some persons as meaning " Victory to tiie gods " {Lh'a 
rgyal lo). 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 297 



twenty-two black tents in it. Supposing four persons to a tent 
(usually there are six or eight), this gives a very respectable 
population for a grazing country. The head of this valley marks 
in this direction the boundary between Jyade and Lh'asa (Riwoche). 
We found a few tents on the east side of the pass, but lower 
down the valley was deserted, though it is one of the finest 
grazing countries I have seen. The people fear the brigands 
{chakba) and thieves {komang), and abandon this rich valley to 
them and to the inmates of a little lamasery. 

After riding about eight miles, we came to the Ke ch'u.* a clear 
and swift, though shallow, river coming from the west and flow- 
ing in an east-northeast direction. We camped about five miles 
down the stream on a grassy flat near its bank. The mountain 
sides begin at this point to be covered with firs, pines and junipers, 
but the upper part of this forest growth is dead ; nothing but black 
trunks mark the altitude to which it extended but a short while 
ago, and as well as I could make out, fire has not destroyed these 
trees. Rhubarb again became plentiful and very luxuriant; 1 had 
not seen any since leaving the Po ch'u. 

It was early when we reached camp, so we were able to take a 
swim in the river, though the current was so rapid that we got 
banged against the rocks a good deal and bruised our feet on the 
pebbles in its bed. This river, 1 hear, flows into the one which 
passes by Riwoche, which is frequently called Ro ch'u, though 
its name is the Tse or Ze ch'u. There are Chinese traders, it 
appears, at Riwoche, where we will arrive to-morrow; at last we 
will get something to eat besides tea, tsamba and mutton, on which 
we have been living for so long. Chinese are fond of good eating, 
and wherever they live they manage to raise some vegetables or 
to bring some delicacy from China. 

To-day has been without rain; last night we had a very heavy 
frost; this evening the sky is beautifully clear. The guides and 
men insist that brigands are lurking about; we saw three or four 
men up a side cafion as we came down the valley, so 1 and the 

* Bower's Kichi and Bonvalot's Setchou {op. cit., 375). The latter writer (p. 377) 
makes this river, or one of the same name, to flow by Riwoche. Bower, by the 
way, does not mention the Ro ch'u. The Wei Ts'ang Vu chih [Journ. Roy. 
Asiat. Soc, n. s. XXIII. 252) calls the Ro ch'u Tzu chu ho, and says that lower 
down it becomes the Ang chu, by which is to be understood that it empties into 
the Om ch'u of Ch'amdo. 



298 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

Hsien-sheng have been out — the night is very dark — and have 
fired off our guns a number of times at some distance from the 
camp. If the brigands are fools they may think we are keeping 
guard. 

My little Amdo lama told me that when at Lh'asa he had seen 
the Kurtamba of the Na-ch'ung gomba perform most wonderful 
tricks, such as cutting off his fingers, eating fire, etc., etc. The 
gomba had only one lama who could perform these feats. My 
lama also said that there was now only one elephant at Lh'asa, 
a present of the Sikkim Rajah, and kept in a stable at the foot of 
Potala. He had brought back with him some of its dung as a 
valuable curio. He also gave me a piece of painted cardboard 
from the torma which is burnt on the 29th day of the last month 
of the year outside the city as a sin-offering {Kurim)* This was 
also one of his much-prized treasures. 

August 2j. — Last night passed quietly; neither brigands nor 
thieves visited us. It is true 1 got up several times in the night 
and going to some distance from the camp fired three or four 
shots of my revolver, but I do not believe that brigands would 
take much trouble to attack such a poverty-stricken looking party. 

A mile below camp the valley broadened for a few miles to the 
very respectable width — for this country — of a quarter of a mile. 
The mountains on the north side were covered with juniper trees 
and dense shrubbery, those on the other side of the valley with 
fine large firs.f There are a few patches of cultivated land here, 
and a solitary stone house, in front of the door of which, a lot of 
very rough and disreputable looking men were talking. My 
guides left me for a while to talk to them, but we rode rapidly 
by, as we did not at all like their looks. 

Leaving the Ke ch'u a little below this spot — it enters here a 
gorge with vertical walls of rock on either side, and flows in a 
southeasterly direction — v^e rode up a narrow ravine and after a 
rather long and very stiff climb, reached the summit of the Dre la 

*On the kiiritn ceremony, see Land of the Lamas, 113. 

f Bonvalot and Bower came on to the Ke ch'u at this point, and from here to 
Riwoche we all followed the same road. Conf. Bower, op. cit., 68, and Bonvalot, 
op. cit., 375. The latter calls the Dre la the Djala and gives its height as 4,500 
meters (14,760 feet). Bower made it 14,720 and 1, 14,735. We have not often come 
so close to each other as this in estimating altitudes. Bower calls this pass Uojalala 
La. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 299 

where we came in view of the Tse ch'u and Riwoche with its 
golden spired temple. 

The slope on the eastern side of the pass for some distance down 
is covered with rhododendrons, called by the Chinese tung eking 
or "winter green" (z. e., evergreen), also with a laurel-leafed shrub, 
and a great variety of other bushes, whose names I do not know. 
Lower down, the mountain sides are thickly covered with fine firs, 
pines and junipers. In the valley bottom grow willows, which we 
had seen, for the first time on the journey, along the Ke ch'u, a 
little above the point where we left it. On both sides we found 
the Dre la composed of blackish slate and fine grained limestone, 
sharp loose bits of which played havoc with the horses' hoofs. 
We had to abandon one pony on the summit of the pass as he 
could not be made to take another step. Of course it was one of 
the best I had; the poor ones have a wonderful way of hanging 
on, they shirk their work, while the good ones go till they drop. 

On the mountain sides as we descended from the Dre la, we 
saw great numbers of crassoptilons, called saga in Tibetan, their 
cry closely resembling that of our guinea fowl. They ran with 
great rapidity uphill through the brush, and though I got very near 
to some of them, they never flew. 

Riwoche is built on the flat bottom of the Tse ch'u* valley on 
the left bank of the river. It consists primarily of a lamasery, in 
which the most conspicuous building is a square temple, its 
exterior wall painted in vertical bands of black, red and white 
color, so that at a distance it seems to have a row of columns 
around it. It has also a small gold spire. Several other temples 
of smaller dimensions stand against the foot of the pine clad 
mountains which rise precipitously behind the lamasery. A village 
of straggling one-storied, flat roofed houses has grown up around 
the lamasery, or rather on its east side, and a mud wall about ten 
feet high and probably built by the Chinese in 1717, surrounds the 
lamasery and village. There is a Hutuketu ("living Buddha") 
residing here, and three hundred lamas of the Nyima or "red hat " 

*The Hsi-yii tung wen chih, XXII, says that the Rtsi ch'u (which I take to be 
the same as the Tse ch'u) becomes lower down its course the Lan-tsan chiang. This 
lacks confirmation. The same work makes mention of an A-rtse ch'u, but I have 
been unable to locate it.' On this important locality, ConL,Journ. Roy. Asiat. 
Soc, n. s. XXill, 55 and 251. On d'Anville's Carte Geni' du Thibet Riwoche is 
called Ritache. 



300 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

sect. The district belongs to Lh'asa and is known to the Chinese 
as Lei-wu-chi. 

The Tse ch'u valley at the town is something over a mile 
broad, but higher up and a little lower down it narrows to a 
quarter of a mile or even considerably less. A bridge of logs, of 
the Tibetan cantilever type and of two spans, insures means of 
crossing the river at all seasons. 

We camped on the right bank of the river about half a mile 
above the town, as our road follows the right bank of the river, 
and we thought it prudent not to venture closer to the town and 
its lamas. The Hsien-sheng went into it, however, in search of 
the Chinese traders reported to be there, but came back much 
disappointed, having learned that the last of them had left for 
Ch'amdo a few days ago. Nothing was to be bought in the way 
of clothing, of which we stood principally in need, and the lamas 
did not show themselves very friendly to him. 

Among the many visitors who came to our camp this afternoon 
was a man who said he had been with Captain Bower from Mer 
djong to Ch'amdo ; he spoke in the highest terms of his kindness and 
liberality. He said he went from Mer djong to Ch'amdo by the 
Waho la, so our routes have only been the same from the Seremdo 
ch'u to Mer djong.* A young boy, an itinerant singer and prayer- 
wheel grinder, also called on me, and amused me with his songs 
and talk; though only eighteen, he had wandered over most of 
Tibet, and what he did not know about the country was not worth 
knowing. I had to hire yaks to carry the baggage to the confluence 
of the Tse ch'u and Ke ch'u, as the mules are too much worn out 
to be of any further use. If only we had shoes for them they 
might reach Bat'ang; as it is, 1 fear they will not even get as far as 
Ch'amdo. 

August 24.. — Last night thieves managed to cut the hair rope 
by which my pony was tied to my tent, not five feet from 
my head, and drove him away. I heard a slight noise in the 
night, jumped up and ran out of my tent, but saw nothing but a 
lean, yellow dog looking for bones near the dying embers of the 
camp fire. 

Some men belonging to a caravan bound for Lh'asa came to 
my camp and said that ten of their mules had been stolen during 

*This IS not true, as Capt. Bower came to Riwoche. 




Temple and Town of Riwoche ( Lei-wu-chi). 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 301 

the night, so I had at least the consolation of knowing that I was 
not the only sufferer. I fancy my guides had a hand in this job, 
for they insisted on my paying them yesterday evening, and left me 
towards dusk, saying that they would camp at the foot of the 
Dre la. 

We left at eight o'clock, all the luggage loaded on the seven 
yaks hired yesterday. The road, for about ten miles, led through 
a dense pine forest which covered the mountains to their summits; 
many of the trees were two feet in diameter at the butt. The 
mountain rose precipitously from the river, and the road was in 
many places three hundred or four hundred feet above it. a narrow 
trail winding among the trees, against which the yaks bumped 
and tore the loads as they tried to push by each other to get the 
lead. The country reminded me of the valley of the Nya ch'u 
above Kanze down which 1 traveled in 1889. 

Descending to the valley bottom, which in places is quite a 
mile broad, we traveled in a southerly direction for about seven 
miles, and then camped on the bank of the river, at a place, or 
district, called Tartung.* 

Though the valley appears fertile, there is hardly any cultivation 
or inhabitants; a few very small hamlets on or near the left bank, 
and two or three hovels on the right, are all 1 have noticed. 1 
hear, however, that there are a great many black tents in the 
lateral valleys; 1 suppose the people try to get as far as possible 
from the highroad, where exacting officials frequently pass and the 
grazing is comparatively poor. 

The forest growth on the left bank of the river is much thinner 
than on the right, where it descends to the valley bottom, on which 
there are large blackthorns {hei-tz'u), willows and several kinds of 
shrubs. The river is very swift, in places from fifty to seventy- 
five yards wide and between six and seven feet deep. 1 noticed 
on the rocks along its bank watermarks six or seven feet above its 
present level, consequently the valley bottom must at times be 
flooded, and so the absence of cultivation is explained. 

August 25. — We continued in a general south-southeast direc- 
tion along the right bank of the river, the trail running most of the 
way along precipitous cliffs several hundred feet above the 
roaring and eddying stream. For part of the way we rode through 

* Very near Bower's Gaima Thong. 



302 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 



dense woods of pines and cedars, and over rickety bridges of logs 
built out from the vertical face of the rock and resting on slender 
poles or large boulders. Such bridges the Chinese call pien- 

Here and there we saw a little cultivation, and on the opposite 
side of the river a place was pointed out to me where iron ore 
was mined. We had not ridden many miles when I noticed on 
the hillside on the left bank two men riding towards us, one with 
a red cloth hood on his head, whom we at once concluded from this 
well known headdress must be a Chinese soldier. He rode for- 
ward, forded the river and riding up saluted me, and said that 
advice having reached Nyulda, the post station on the highroad 
which we were now making for, that a foreigner had reached 
Riwoche and that the lamas wanted to prevent him proceeding 
as it was Deba djong territory, the Wai-wei of Nyulda had sent 
him, the T'ung-shih of the post, to look me up and assist me, if 
need be. 

A mile or so farther on we came to where the Ke ch'u, which 
we had left on the morning of the 23d, empties into the Tse ch'u. 
Here the yaks hired at Riwoche were to leave us, so we stopped 
at a farm near by and entered into negotiations with the people to 
carry the luggage on to Nyulda. As only about twelve miles 
separated us from the latter place, and as the ula yaks were on the 
mountain pastures and could not be brought in till to-morrow, 
the Hsien-sheng and I pushed on as rapidly as we could, leaving 
the two other men and the luggage to come on to-morrow, and 
reached En-ta (Nyulda or Nyimda)t by 2 p. m. in a heavy rain. 

The valley narrowed considerably below the mouth of the Ke 
ch'u, the mountain sides still well timbered, but habitations rare 
and no black tents anywhere to be seen. We are apparently out 
of the Drupa region for a while. 

Nyulda is a miserable little place built on a bed of dibris at the 
mouth of two valleys and near the bank of the Tse ch'u. Up one 
of these valleys runs the highroad to Lh'asa, Shobando being five 

*Capt. Bower says of this valley {op. cit., 68) " In no part of Kashmir does the 
beauty of the scenery exceed that in this part of Tibet." 

t Bonvalot calls this station Houmda {pp. cit., 377), and Bower (p. 69) calls it 
Memda. The name is Dngul-mdah, "Silver arrow," which the Chinese transcribe 
En-ta. On Bower's map this place is called Logamda. Locally the name is pro- 
nounced Nyimda. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 303 

Stages from this place; up the other, it is said, a trail goes to 
Gart'ok, but I doubt it. A half dozen Tibetan houses and a 
mixed population of Chinese and Tibetans, some thirty or forty 
all told, inhabit this unprepossessing place, which is a post station 
on the highroad between Ta-chien-lu and Central Tibet. 

The Wai-wei or Corporal commanding the post of five soldiers 
had us lodged in a filthy stable dignified by the name of Kung- 
kuan, and 1 was obliged to make myself as comfortable as 1 could 
in it, not having a tent, and it being too bad weather to camp 
out. Shortly after my arrival he came, in full official dress I 
must do him the justice to say, to see my passport, and made 
me a present of onions, cabbages, turnips, o-sung* a few eggs 
and a piece of mutton, for which 1 gave him a return present of 
3 rupees, a lot more than the things were worth, but vegetables 
seemed to us worth their weight in silver, for we had not seen, 
let alone tasted, such delicious looking ones for an age. 

When the Wai-wei had made all he could out of me, his five 
disreputable looking soldiers came with some more vegetables 
and eggs, and in turn received more money from me, then came 
two parties of soldiers, one en route for Shobando, the other going 
to Lh'asa, and they likewise preyed on the foreigner. Then the 
T'ung-shih who had discovered me, asked for a present, and 1 
began to lose patience, and when the Wai-wei sent me word 
that he would like a further present, I revolted, and told them what 
1 thought of them, and having accepted their apologies which 
immediately followed, we became good friends again, and nothing 
more was said about li wu. 

A little above Nyulda 1 noticed birch trees and maples; they are 
the first of these species we have seen since leaving Kuei-te in 
Kan-su.f 1 saw also some rhubarb, but nowhere along the route 
have I seen any as large or in such abundance as on the 1 ch'u and 
Len ch'u. I saw beside the Kung-kuan, a pile of iron ore (pyrites) ; 
it is mined a little way up the Lh'asa highroad to the southwest of 
here. Iron is also found, 1 am told, near Lagong, east of Nyulda. J 

* A kind of cabbage, I believe, of which the stalk only is eaten, after being scraped. 
It tastes something like boiled artichokes. 

t Conf., however, p. 282, where the word 'birch ' should be substituted for ' spruce.' 

X Bonvalot {op. cit., 378) describes at length the methods followed at Lagong (his 
Lagoun) in working iron. 



304 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

It is smelted and cast into rough kettles and a few other small 
articles used in the country. 

I was struck by hearing the Chinese soldiers here (all of them 
natives of Ssii-ch'uan and most of them from the Chien-ch'ang) 
speak of the (Lh'asa ?) Tibetans as Tang-ku-tu and of the Nepalese 
as Pei-pung-tzu.* 

A quantity of dried red peppers was given me this evening by 
one of the soldiers ; they came from Poma. That region apparently 
supplies all eastern Tibet with delicacies; it is the land of promise 
of Tibet. 

August 26. — The two men left behind with the luggage and 
mules got in to-day at noon, and I prepared to start at once for 
Lagong. 1 asked the Wai-wei to give me ula, as 1 found it too 
expensive to hire pack animals, but I intend to give the people 
who supply the animals good pay for them. The system of 
counting as a "stage" (/jj'a'^.y'M^g-), two points frequently not over 
a couple of miles apart and chargmg a rupee a stage for each yak 
or pony, makes hiring pack animals very expensive. 

At I p. M. 1 was ready to start for Lagong, but the ula did not 
come, and 1 learnt that the yak drivers would not start for Ch'amdo 
before I had obtained permission of the Ta lama of that place to 
travel on his territory. I at once called the Wai-wei and told him 
that I expected him to assert his authority and to have the ula 
called, that 1 was now traveling on an imperial highroad, and 
being a bearer of an imperial passport, I expected every courtesy 
shown me. While we were talking, a number of Ch'amdo men 
came up and begged me not to start before they had time to inform 
the Ch'amdo authorities. 1 refused to listen to them, and said 
that we would all ride to Ch'amdo together. 

Finally the yaks were loaded and we started out, without, 
however, the Wai-wei giving me an escort, as he should have 
done, in fact he was so overawed by the big talk of the Tibetans, 
that he feared to go against what he thought were their wishes in 

* Tibetans call the Nepalese Pebu and Guk'ar. The first term applies to the Par- 
butiya, the latter to the Gorkas. These same soldiers spoke of the Ch'amdo people 
as Ch'amdowa, of the Lit'ang ones as Lit'angwa, etc. The term Tang-ku-tu, in 
English Tangut, has been erroneously applied to the Koko-nor Tibetans exclusively. 
It is in reality the Mongol word for Tibet or Tibetans generally. 




View of Mountains North of Neda (Erh-lang-wan i. 




Bridge over Ze ch'u or Sung-lo zamba iCh'amdoK 



1 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 305 

the matter. The Ch'iimdo men, some ten or fifteen in number, 
got on their horses when I did, and rode just ahead of me along 
the road to Lagong. 

The Tse ch'u* below Nyulda flows as far as the Lagong or 
" Upper La " district, in a narrow gorge, the mountains on either 
side densely covered with fine pines, junipers, small birches and a 
variety of other kinds of trees; the ground in many places was 
covered with gooseberry bushes, strawberry vines and other trail- 
ing plants and ferns. In places the trail, for it is little better, 
though dignified with the name of highroad, is four hundred or 
five hundred feet above the stream, and for quite a distance after 
leaving Nyulda we rode over a log platform overhanging the 
river. 

About eight miles from Nyulda the valley broadened, and we 
came to the village of Lagong and the Sung lo bridge, which 
some of the people called Tung-djung zamba, a log bridge of the 
cantilever style in two spans, over which runs a road leading to 
Riwoche and also around the city of Ch'amdo, joining the high- 
road to China southeast of that place and near the post station of 
Pao-tun (or Pungde). The Ch'amdo men pulled up across the 
road when we came near the bridge, and again begged me to stop 
until the Ch'amdo officials could come and see me, saying that if 
1 did not do so 1 would get them in serious trouble. I finally 
agreed to remain camped by the bridge for one day; my played 
out mules make it impossible for me to go on unless 1 leave them 
all behind, which I do not care to do for they are still worth a 
good deal of money. 

We camped under some trees by the river side, where it flows 
at the foot of a cliff of red sandstone some four hundred feet high, 
and on top of which is a little Ih'a-k'ang. This rock is held to be 
sacred, and when I wanted to fire off my gun against it, 1 was 
told that I must shoot in another direction as it would disturb the 
gods. There are tour or five hamlets scattered along both sides 
of the river below here and a little lamasery around the east end 
of the cliff just referred to. 

Bonvalot and his party were made to cross the river by the 
Sung-lo bridge, and 1 fancy that 1 will be requested to do the 

* Bower calls it the Zichu. 



3o6 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 




SMALL TEA DASHER 

(Jyad6). 



same.* The Tse ch'u valley is, so far, the most 
picturesque and fertile one we have seen any- 
where in Tibet, and at this season of the year, 
when the rough, dingy stone houses are nearly 
hidden under the sheaves of yellow barley drying 
on the frameworks on the roofs, and the people 
are all gay and happy after plentiful harvests, 
we see it at its very best. The forest clad moun- 
tains, behind which rise jagged needles of rock 
or snow-covered peaks, form a fitting background 
to this alpine scene. The ground where we 
are camped is literally covered with edelweiss, 
of which there are three or four varieties. 

A number of persons stopped at our camp this 
afternoon ; each one had something to sell, a ball 
of butter, a pair of garters, or anything which 
struck our fancy. I refused to pay money for 
anything, and made some very good bargains 
with buttons as a medium of exchange. We 
bought, however, a fine sheep for two rupees, 
and gave up the day to feasting and enjoying 
ourselves, absolutely indifferent as to what may 
occur on the morrow, for we do not apprehend 
serious trouble, only lots of " talky-talky. " 

August 2y. — This morning by half past five 
o'clock, a gorgeous lama official wearing a wide 
brimmed gilded and varnished hat surmounted 
by a coral button, came riding up with a numerous 
escort. His fine red silk robe and shawl of the 
most beautiful tirma had a few little patches care- 
fully sewn on them, to conform to the rules of his 

* At least so I was told by the people, but Bonvalot's narra- 
tive does not bear this out, though I am fain to admit that from 
the time he reached Lama until he got to Gart'ok 1 have no 
means of locating his route. It ran around Ch'amdo and then 
parallel to the highroad followed by Bower and myself, but to 
the east of it, until Gart'ok was reached. It is a great pity 
that the map which accompanies Mr. Bonvalot's narrative has 
not been more carefully prepared, it is, in fact, absolutely 
worthless for geographers, though it was good enough in Le 
Temps where it originally appeared a few days after Mr. 
Bonvalot's return to Paris. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 307 

order, which prescribe that monk's clothing must be of patched 
and not of new stuff; altogether he was a very fine looking fellow, 
and strangest of all he was remarkably clean.* This latter pecu- 
liarity, 1 learned later on in the day, was due to the fact that he 
was a S.^u-ch'uanese by birth, and a Tibetan by adoption. His face 
was distinctly Chinese, of the oval, refined type, and a black 
mustache hid his lip. His name was P'apa Shere, and he had 
the rank of governor of a district {djong), and was one of the 
secretaries or ministers of the P'apa Lh'a, the ruler of Ch'amdo.f 

I told him of my wanderings, but said that I had no account to 
render him of my movements, that the Chinese officer of Ch'amdo 
was the only person with whom I could settle the question of my 
further movements, adding that I was not now traveling on a road 
belonging exclusively to Ch'amdo or Lh'asa, but on one of the 
Emperor of China's highroads, along which he had guards and 
over which all Chinese, traders as well as officials, could travel. 
Finally, 1 said, that not speaking Tibetan well, I wanted an inter- 
preter and that I must request of him to have one sent here from 
Nyulda or Ch'amdo before discussing any subject of importance 
with him. 

He said that I was quite right in saying that I was traveling on 
the Emperor's highway, and that if I insisted upon it the Jyami 
Ponbo ("Chinese official ") would unquestionably require that I be 
allowed to enter the town of Ch'amdo. He hoped, however, 
and the P'apa Lh'a had told him to tell me the same, that I would 
not insist on going to Ch'amdo, for it would unquestionably 
cause trouble there. There were in the town several thousand 
lamas who would not hear of foreigners entering it, and though 
he and the educated lamas knew that foreigners were not dan- 
gerous, still they could not impress this on the common draba. 
He would also beg me not to insist on having an interpreter, or 

* Bonvalot met this same lama, see op. cit., 381-382. He told me he had also 
seen Bower's party. See Bower's Diary, p. 71. 1 cannot imagine who Bower 
refers to as "the Amban of Chiamdo," it must have been the Chinese Yo-chi (Major) 
commanding the Chinese garrison. 

t Chamdo is an ecclesiastical fief under the rule of a high dignitary of the Gelug 
sect, who bears the title of P'apa Lh'a. Under him are three other high dignitaries, 
the Djiwa Lh'a, the Jyara truku, and another whose title 1 could not learn. See on 
the subject of Ch'amdo, Journ. Roy. Asiat. Soc, n. s. XXlll, 54, 125, 251, 271 
and 276. Also Hue, Souvenirs d'un voyage, II, 460 et seq. 



3o8 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

calling the Chinese into this affair in any way, let us settle it ami- 
cably among ourselves, for the Chinese would but make trouble. 

If I would agree to it, he would have me escorted around 
Ch'amdo to the highroad at Pungde by the road over the Sung-lo 
bridge, the same which the two other parties of foreigners who 
had visited this place previously had followed.* As to the various 
things, boots, hats, rice, etc, etc., which I said I wanted, he 
would purchase them in Ch'amdo for me, and meet me with 
them somewhere outside of the town, as he had done for the other 
foreigners. 

1 replied that having come to this country to examine it, I would 
not follow any road taken by other foreigners, for 1 would be 
losing time, that rather than go by the road over the bridge, I 
would wait here until the Chinese official at Ch'amdo could come 
here and talk the matter over with me. 

P'apa Shere, seeing me determined, said that there was another 
trail which led to Pungde over the mountains to the south of the 
city and which had not been examined by any foreigners, and 
that if I would take it, he would meet me at a place which 1 
would reach in three days, and besides bringing me all the things 
I required, he would also have for me six strong horses in exchange 
for my played out mules. He would also give me two guides 
and ula through Ch'amdo territory. 

1 finally accepted this suggestion and will set out to-morrow. 
The lama was most anxious for me to start to-day; he feared 
apparently the arrival of Chinese from Ch'amdo, whose interference 
in this matter he apprehended very much. The day has been a 
most trying one for me for I have talked incessantly, but 1 believe 
1 have acted rightly — at least in the interests of geography — for the 
right of foreigners to visit Ch'amdo is not denied, and as to the 
town itself, we know all about it from Monseigneur Thomine 
Desmazure's and Peres Desgodins' and Renou's visit and sojourn 
there in i86i.t These missionaries' farthest point west was the 
village about one-quarter of a mile east of where we are now 
camped, and which they called Lagong, though the lama told me 
it was known as La-stod or "Upper La," in contradistinction to 

* He tried to deceive me here, for neither Bonvalot nor Bower went by this route. 

\ See C. H. Desgodins, Le Thibet d'apr^s la correspondence des Mission- 
naires, 97 et seq. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 309 

another hamlet about five miles east of here which is called La-mii 
or "Lower La." The whole district is known as Lagong djong. 

August 28. — We left a little before seven and rode down the 
valley to a bridge across the Tse ch'u, called the Jyabo zamba, 
where we crossed over to the left bank of the river. The Tse 
ch'u here takes a southerly bend, and the highroad leads up a 
valley trending east and west, the mountains on its southern side 
thickly covered with fine pines, those on the north side barer and 
terminating in high limestone peaks and needles. 

A few miles up this valley we came to the hamlet of La-ma, 
or " Lower La," * where I found P'apa Shere waiting for me with 
a slight collation spread on the ground outside the/ya-Z^w^ ,^'aw^, 
or " post station " which, he said, was too dirty for anyone to eat 
in — it must have been filthy indeed ! 1 saw here some more men 
wearing the cangue as a punishment for killing game. 

I have rarely seen such inveterate beggars as these Ch'amdo 
people; from the gorgeously dressed and undoubtedly wealthy 
P'apa Shere down, everyone has begged for sum. This morning 
at La-mii 1 gave the lama about 30 taels of silver to buy things 
for me at Ch'amdo, the prices I was to pay for them having been 
settled between us. There will be a balance due me of about 
2.8 rupees; this he begged me to give him with many ''Sum, 
sum P'dnbo cJien-po, sum kutsS rS." I laughed at him and tried to 
make him ashamed of himself, but to no effect. Then each man 
of his escort came and begged for a present of money, and the 
lama had the impudence to back their requests, but I refused to 
give them a cash. 

What a difference between this people and the Panaka and 
Jyade, who never ask for anything and are delighted with the 
smallest trifie one sees fit to give them. I find that wherever 
the Tibetan people are under direct lama rule, as in Ch'amdo, 
the standard of morality and self respect is very low; they are 
thoroughly demoralized in every respect; the lamas of Kumbum 
and Amdo generally, are just as bad as those of this country or 
Lh'asa in this respect; lamas are primarily mendicants, they never 
forget it. 

The highroad to Ch'amdo leaves the La-ma valley a little to the 
east of the hamlet of that name, and ascending the steep and 

* Called by Bower Lani Sacha. Sa-ch'a means ' land, country.' 



3IO JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

rough limestone range which borders it here, crosses it by the 
Namts'o la. 

We left the highroad and followed the La-ma ch'u up to its 
source, camping at the base of the Shi la at an altitude of about 
14,700 feet above sea level. Five miles east of La-mii the valley 
takes, as far as its head, the name of Unda. Up to the altitude 
of about 13,000 feet the mountains on the south side of the valley 
are covered with fine timber, juniper and pine, though on the 
north side only a few trees and a good deal of brush are to be 
seen. Above this limit there are only rhododendron bushes, and 
they do not extend higher than the old cabin near which we have 
camped to-night. 

One of the yak drivers has a supplementary little finger grow- 
ing out of the side of his left hand. This is the first time 1 have 
noticed this deformity among the Tibetans, though it is a very 
common one in North China.* 

The vocabulary of most Tibetans is a very limited one, this 
morning, for example, P'apa Shere, who is a very well educated 
man, said that the only word used for "foot rule " was the Chin- 
ese chih-tzu, and chien-tzu, the Chinese term for " scissors," was 
also the only one known in Tibet. f He told me that Chinese 
copper cash were used to a limited extent at Ch'amdo, and that 
there were no Nepalese (Peurbu) traders living there, only Chinese, 
of whom there were over a hundred. 

August 29. — We left at half past six and reached the top of the 
Shi la by eight, after a very stiff climb which we had to make 
on foot; in fact we walked most of the day, and it has been our 
practice for a long while past to get off the horses at every bit of 
rough or uneven road. The Shi la appears to be composed of a 
rather fine reddish sandstone conglomerate. 

From the pass we took an east-southeast direction across the 
head of a little valley in which the water was flowing in a northerly 
direction, and then by a low col passed into another narrow and 
very precipitous valley whose flanks were covered with a dense 
and luxuriant growth of pines (or firs) and junipers, not a few of 
the former four feet in diameter at the ground. There was a rather 

* See p. 6. 

f Chinese, Mongol, Hindustani, Persian, Turkish and Sanskrit words are numer- 
ous in Tibetan, in both the written and spoken languages. Tibetan names of 
clothes, vegetables, household implements, etc., etc., are mostly foreign terms. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 311 

thick undergrowth of a great variety of shrubs, and rhubarb was 
also very plentiful. The descent of this valley was extremely 
steep but we very much enjoyed riding under the grand old trees 
from whose branches hung long threads of light yellow or bright 
orange colored moss {Usnea barbata) tinging the whole forest with 
their delicate hues. Here and there we caught a glimpse of far off 
peaks and crags and forest covered mountains all seeming to trend 
southeast or south-southeast, but of so nearly an even height that it 
was difficult to decide the question. Numerous bunches of silver 
pheasants {saga) skurried across our path, but the woods were 
wonderfully still; save for these ma-chi's cry, 1 do not think that 1 
heard a sound in them but the roaring of the water in the gorge 
below us as it tumbled over the rocks on its way down to join 
the Tse ch'u. 

The yak drivers told me that throughout the forests of Ch'amdo, 
and I suppose in the adjacent countries to the east and especially 
to the south, bears, wolves, and leopards are very numerous. 

We stopped for the night at the village of Ge where the road 
we are following branches: one trail leading up the valley goes to 
Draya, the other takes a northeast direction to the town of Ch'amdo, 
which is, a native tells me, a half day's ride from Ge. 

There is a jya-ts'ug k'ang here but 1 preferred camping outside 
the village as the weather is fine and the people pleasant. Oats 
and turnips appear to be the only crops raised at this place, while 
at Lagong only a little oats is grown, and barley and wheat are 
the principal crops. 

I must not omit to note that to-day when on the east side of 
the Shi la I saw two small hares, the first I have seen since enter- 
ing the inhabited portion of Tibet. 1 suppose some animal must 
destroy them, for the Tibetans neither kill them nor eat their flesh. 
The marmots (Jiuang shu in Chinese) of this section of country 
are so large that I am inclined to take them for a different variety 
from those living in the north. 

Yesterday I had to abandon, a few miles beyond La-ma, the 
yellow pony the Namru Deba had given me; it was too worn out 
to take another step. 1 have now three saddle horses and will 
get six pack horses when 1 meet P'apa Shere on the Om ch'u. I 
had to leave my mules at Lagong as they could go no farther. 

1 have asked a great many persons how far it was from Ch'amdo 
to Derge drongcher, as I thought 1 might try to take that road; all 



312 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

have agreed in saying that it took twelve days to go there. The 
traffic over this road must be important, for Derge is a very fertile 
district and its products are much prized and generally used all 
over Tibet. 



August so. — Leaving Ge we followed the Ch'amdo road up a 
narrow gorge covered with dense forest growth, and ascending 
to about eight hundred feet above the timber line by a very steep 
trail, we came to the summit of the Dre la. From this elevated 
point 1 was able to locate the point of junction of the two rivers 
which meet before the town of Ch'amdo, which as the crow flies, 
was not more than six or eight miles northeast of us. A large 
labsti crowns a hill which 1 think is immediately behind the town. 

Near the summit of the pass we found two or three black tents, 
and stopping near one we bought a bucket of sho and milk and 
took lunch and a quiet pipe afterwards while gazing upon the 
beautiful scenery. 

The descent from the Dre la was at first very steep and led over 
a few hills covered with brush, and then into a densely wooded 
valley. Pines, firs and junipers in the upper part, and lower down 
willows filled the valley, and birch, cherry, apricot, apple and plum 
trees were seen in great numbers.* Gooseberry and currant 
bushes, raspberries of apricot color and taste, and strawberries 
were also abundant, and I can vouch for the raspberries (maran) 
being delicious. Rose bushes were also abundant and the people, 
like the Ainu by the way, eat the skin of the seed-vessels. 

After a most agreeable ride of about eighteen miles, we reached 
the mouth of the valley, and on a little bluff near the Om ch'u 
river,t in the hamlet of Kinda, we saw the lama P'apa Shere stand- 
ing on the roof of a house looking anxiously for us up the Djung 
rong tranka valley down which we were quietly making our way. 



* Bonvalot found the same kind of country on theOm ch'u above Ch'amdo. 
op. cit., 383. 



See 



t According to the Hsi-yu tung wen chih, Bk. 22, 9, the name of this river is 
Om ch'u. Other Chinese writers ( Wei Tsang Vu chih for example) write the 
name Ang ch'u. This latter work says that on account of its passing through 
Yitn-nan it is also called Yiin (nan) ho. Jotirn. Roy. Asiat. Soc, n. s. XXIll, 251. 
Bonvalot {op. cit., 383) calls it the Giomtchou and says it flows by Lamda on the 
highroad. In this he is certainly wrong. Bower calls the river the Nam chu. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 313 

All the things I had asked for had been brought me from 
Ch'amdo, and the P'apa Lh'a had sent me a lot of presents and his 
thanks for having waived my right to visit the town of Ch'amdo. 
The six pack-ponies will be here early to-morrow, when I will be 
able to push on down to the ferry over the Om ch'u. The 
lama also brought me a very good Chinese dinner of four courses 
and some loaves of bread which we enjoyed very much. Alto- 
gether, although he is a vile beggar, P'apa Shere has behaved most 
politely, and I do not regret the journey around Ch'amdo he has 
made me take, it has led me through some beautiful country. 

We passed the rest of the day talking with the lama, and telling 
him about the town of Ch'amdo and the visit made it in 1861 by 
the French missionaries. I also told him about the Ch'amdo 
mission to Peking in 1885 and of the intimacy which had sprung 
up between its chief and myself during the four or five months 
he had stayed there. I told him how foolish was the plan the 
Tibetans were trying to follow in keeping foreigners out of the 
country, how impossible it was to prevent their getting all the 
information they required, and I showed him the maps of the 
great Trigonometrical Survey, and read to him the names of all the 
villages around Lh'asa and other large cities of Tibet where he had 
been, and told him how they were made, and that, though the 
British had had this information for years, no harm had come of it 
to Tibet. 

The lama readily admitted the truth of all I said, but added 
that his position, being a Chinese by birth, made it necessary for 
him to out-Herod Herod in all questions of exclusion; even where 
his own countrymen were concerned, he had to be anti-foreign. 

Among other things he gave me the local names of the follow- 
ing fruits. 

Currant, si. 

Raspberry, maran* 

* At Draya called tayu, from Gart'ok to Bat'ang known as tresui. In the alpine 
regions of west Kan-su, Prjevalsky {Mongolia, 11, 79) met with a gooseberry with 
a bitter yellowish berry, a raspberry {Rubus pwigens) with delicious fruit of pale red 
color, another raspberry {Rubus Idceiis f) similar to the European species but only 
two feet high, also two kinds of Barberry {Berberis), black currants {Ribes), cherry 
and wild strawberries {Fragaria sp.). Dr. Hooker, Himalayan Journals, 1, 99 and 
150, found the yellow raspberry in the Sikkim Terai at and above 4,000 feet, and 
Moorcroft, Travels, I, 56, says it grows in Kashmir near Joshimath. 



314 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 



Strawberry, sa si, (lit. "ground currant.") 

Blackberry (?), taji. 

Apricot, kambo. 

Peach, sentkam. 

After most pressing requests, I sold the lama one of my Win- 
chester carbines for 30 taels, and exchanged the other for the horse 
he was riding, a remarkably fine animal. I have no further use 
for rifles, and my shot gun is good enough for defense and any 
shooting 1 may want to do on the way. 

August J T. — The six pack horses (pretty sorry ones, I am fain 
to admit) turned up early this morning, and we were soon ready to 
start. As far as Pungde 1 have ula, so we will have only the 
pleasures of travel with none of the attendant trouble. I hear that 
one of the mules 1 gave the lama died two days after he got it; 
1 am not a bit sorry, it evens up our account a little, and still he 
has a good balance to his credit. 

Our road led down the right bank of the Om ch'u, a fine, swift 
river one hundred and fifty to two hundred yards wide, as large 
as the Dre ch'u in Derge. The mountains rise precipitously along 
the left bank, but on the right there is room for some farming and 
hamlets are numerous along that side. The mountains, 1,000 to 
1,500 feet high, are of sandstone formation, and the road in not 
a few places runs along the vertical sides of cliflfs overhanging 
the river, three hundred or four hundred feet above the stream. 

At the entrance of each hamlet we found the headman, and 
usually a woman or two, with a jug of ch'ang (on the mouth of 
which is always put a little piece of butter) placed on a little 
table, and a rug spread on the ground for me to sit on, awaiting 
our passage, and 1 drank a cup of this harmless beverage with 
each one, and gave them a tanka for their pains. 

A little below Kunda I saw a covey of partridges, the fir.st 1 
have seen in Tibet.* 

About nine miles below Kinda we stopped to change ula at a 
good-sized hamlet. On the other side of the river nearly oppo- 
site this place and at the mouth of a gorge stands a little gomba. 
There is a road coming from Ch'amdo and following the left bank 
of the Om ch'u which goes up this gorge, and comes out on the 
highroad near Pungde. 

*0n the game birds of Tibet, see Dr. W. G. Thorold, in Bower, op. cit., 116. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 315 

At the hamlet where we stopped to change ula, the people 
brought us tea and ch'ang and were very friendly. There was a 
pretty little garden {lingo) below the headman's house, planted 
with willow and poplar trees, and the whole place had quite a 
prosperous air about it. The people were busy harvesting their 
barley and oats, but the wheat was not yet ripe. The houses in 
this hamlet were three or four stories high — the first of this height 
we have seen — the walls of the ground floor made of mud and 
stone, those of the upper, the outside walls included, of wattle 
plastered over with mud. Large logs are used in great quantities 
in every building in a most reckless way, or rather, 1 suspect, 
where the people would like to use a bit of board, they have to ' 
use a log, not having implements, or time, or even the desire to 
cut the log to the desired size. In the west of the United States 
I have seen people put one end of a log twenty feet long in their 
fire-place, with the other end outside the door and keep pushing 
it on the fire little by little, rather than chop it up. The same 
praiseworthy desire to economize labor animates these poor 
benighted Tibetans. 

We saw many women with small goitres (the first I saw were 
yesterday atGe), and a few men had them also, but none, how- 
ever, were very large. 

About five miles before reaching the village of Nuyi, where we 
stopped for the night and which is near the ferry over the Om 
ch'u, the mountain sides became covered with fir trees and the 
hills sloped more gently down to the river and afforded greater 
space for cultivation. 

The houses of Nuyi and those in the adjacent hamlets are 
shaded by fine poplar trees, and on many of the balconies were 
seen little boxes or pots of blooming flowers, a sure sign of 
Chinese influence. The people were vilely dirty, the women 
especially. The men are taller than any 1 have seen elsewhere in 
Tibet. 1 put up my tent on the roof of a house, and enjoyed the 
view of the swift, muddy river dashing down the valley; in one 
direction the storm clouds were gathering on the mountain tops, 
and the lightning was flashing, while a little beyond was a 
hamlet, its houses, trees and fields bathed in sunlight. 

September i. — A good part of the morning was taken up get- 
ting across the river. The Om ch'u at the ferry runs for about a 



3l6 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 



mile in a straight, unbroken stream, nearly free from eddies and 
whirlpools, and between banks of coarse gravel and sand, rising 
seventy-five to a hundred feet above the water. The horses 
and cattle had to swim, and a hard job it was to make the poor 
fagged out things face the swift, broad current, but in they had 
to go, and all of them got across. The raft on which we crossed 
was made of eight big logs about ten feet long, strongly pinned 
and chained forward and aft to cross logs. Six half naked men 
armed with paddles propelled the crazy craft, two squatting on 
the front end and two on either side. It took five trips to get the 
party and our luggage across, and we only suffered a slight wet- 
ting. 

On the left bank of the river were several hamlets, and nearly all 
the people turned out to see the foreigner and his party, bringing 
us ch'ang, tea and tsamba. These people 1 found quite as tall as 
those at Nuyi, the men averaging not less than five feet ten inches, 
and several of them six feet one or two inches.* 

Leaving the Om ch'u we took a north-northeast direction, and 
after passing a couple of hamlets in the foothills, we ascended the 
steep side of the mountains and finally reached the summit of the 
Mite la at 2 p. m. and the little post-station of Pungde was before 
us at our feet. From here I could also follow the course of the 
Om ch'u for some distance south of where we had crossed it. It 
flows in a south-southeast direction between heavily timbered 
mountains. About thirty miles due south of the Mite la, and 
probably not far from the right bank of the Om ch'u, we saw a 
range of snow-covered mountains trending apparently southeast 
by east or thereabout; but 1 could not connect it with any range 
seen farther west along our route. I also noticed that a road ran 
from Pungde to Ch'amdo parallel to the Om ch'u but along the 
east side of the mountains on the left bank of that river. 

The northern slope of the Mite la was covered with raspberry 
bushes and the ula people, — there were at least twenty of them, 
men, women, boys and girls, — who had come of their own free 
will for the fun of the thing, gathered a quantity for me. 

Pungdef (in Chinese, Pao-tun) is a small hamlet of eight or ten 
houses with a Chinese post station {fang) and a post house 

*Bonvalot, op. cit., 390, remarks on the height of the natives of this region: 
" Beaucoup d'entre eux ont plus de i m. 80 de hauteur." 

t Bower's Pandesar. He makes it thirty-three miles from Ch'amdo. Chinese 
itineraries make the distance 150 li, or about 36 miles. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 31? 

{^Kung-kuan). There are four Chinese soldiers stationed here to 
forward the mail and government merchandise, also a station 
keeper, all of them with native wives. They received me most 
hospitably, gave me a good room, brought me some vegetables 
and eggs and made us all as comfortable as they could. 

I gave the ula people six rupees; they had enjoyed the jaunt 
ever so much; it would have been too unkind to have sent them 
back empty handed, and so they all started oflf at once for home in 
high spirits. They will have walked, when they get back to their 
houses, about thirty miles in twelve hours, but they did not seem 
to think it was anything extraordinary. 

The soldiers, Ssu-ch'uanese of course, told me all the gossip of 
the place. They said that the two foreigners who had passed here 
in the twelfth moon (sometime in January)* had a Nepalese 
interpreter whose Tibetan was so peculiar that they could not 
understand it and whose Chinese was worse. The foreigners 
themselves were very kind, they wrote and sketched a great deal, 
but the interpreter seems not to have made friends with the natives 
or the Chinese. 

The soldiers' wives wear very large curious earrings studded 
with turquoises, such as 1 have not seen elsewhere. They are, 
1 am told, peculiar to Ch'amdo.f 1 bought a pair from one woman 
who begged that I would not show them to anyone, as women 
were ashamed to sell their jewelry. I told her this trait was not 
peculiar to this part of the world, and she appeared relieved to 
know that others felt as she did. 

These Chmese soldiers stationed along the post road between 
Lh'asa and Ta-chien-lu are paid 60 taels a year, but the Ta-chien-lu 
Chun-liang-fu and the Liang-t'aiJ of Bat'ang, instead of giving 
them silver, pay them in tea which the soldiers have to accept for 
about double the price at which they can sell it here, or at any of 
the £ang (post stations) along the route. The Tibetans will not 

* Bower camped here on the 2d January, 1892. 

t Somewhat similar ones are worn in Central and Ulterior Tibet. 

JThe Chiin-liang Fu is the Commissary General for Tibet. There are Liang-t'ai, 
or Quartermasters, at Lit'ang, Bat'ang, Ch'amdo, Larego and Lh'asa. The soldiers 
are classed as "Foot soldiers" {P'u-ping) and " Mounted soldiers" {Ma ping). 
The salary of the latter is slightly greater than that of the former. A man is raised 
from P'u-ping to Ma ping for good conduct or long service, but he has to mount 
himself. 



3i8 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

allow them to compete with them in trade, and so they can only 
exchange their tea for tsamba, flour, butter and mutton. In some 
of the warmer localities the soldiers raise a few vegetables, and 
at all the stations they keep poultry, and a pig or two. Their 
Tibetan wives and their numerous offspring are hostages to fortune 
with a vengeance, and few of them manage to get back to their 
native land, especially as the Chinese government does not pay 
their traveling expenses. They seem, however, very fond of their 
wives and children and have pretty easy lives; the women do all 
the work, and they — the men — have but to take care of the 
children and smoke opium, or a water pipe if they cannot afford 
to buy the drug. The only arms these so-called soldiers have are 
those they can buy themselves, for the government supplies none. 



I 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 3^9 



PART V. 
Draya. Mar-k'ams. Bat'ang. Lit'ang. Chala. 



September 2. — We left Pungde accompanied by two soldiers as 
an escort. A few miles southeast by east from the station we 
crossed the Ipi la or Ku-lung shan, " Pierced mountains," as the 
Chinese call it, on account of the holes {ku-lung) in the rocks on 
its summit and on the eastern side of the pass. This mountain 
marks the boundary between Ch'amdo and Chamdun-Draya. 

At the foot of the pass on the east side I found a gorgeous 
lama and eight or ten men of Draya awaiting my advent, seated 
around a fire drinkmg tea and smoking. The lama was a Secretary 
or Drung-yig of the grand lama of Draya, which district is, like 
Ch'amdo, an ecclesiastical principality. He begged me, in view 
of the disturbed state of the country, which he said was at war 
with Derge, to take a by-road leading around the north of Draya 
and directly to Gart'ok.* He said 1 could have no objection to 
obliging them, as I had acceded to a similar request on the part of 
the Ch'amdo authorities. 

It was a most tempting offer, for by following the highroad 
which had previously been explored by Europeans 1 had nothing to 
expect in the geographical line, beyond perhaps correcting a few 
topographical errors or making new ones myself; whereas, if I took 
the road suggested by the lama I would be going over new 
ground and possibly reaching Derge drongcher, a locality I had 
long wanted to visit. On the other hand if 1 did not go to Draya, 
the next European who came along this way would be refused 
admission there and the point gained by Capt. Bower in visiting 
this place would be lost by me. Just as in the case of Ch'amdo, 
if Bonvalot had insisted on going into that town. Bower and I 

* In all likelihood the route followed by Bonvalot. 



320 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

could have gone there too. So very reluctantly I decided to refuse 
to take any other road than that leading to Draya, and having so 
informed the lama, I got on my horse and rode off, followed by 
the Drung-yig and his party who tried to take up the discussion 
again while riding along. 

About four miles beyond the foot of the Ipi la, the Bagong ch'u, 
which has jts source in that mountain, takes for a few miles a 
sharp bend eastward, coming back afterwards to its southeast 
course. We left the river here and crossed some forest-covered 
hills known as the Drama la and the Luma la.* From the summit 
of the latter, looking northward across the valley of the Bagong 
ch'u, we saw a short valley trending nearly due north. The Draya 
lama pointing to it said that a good road ran that way around 
Draya, but 1 rode on without heeding him. We saw ten black 
tents on the slopes of the Luma la, but it is poor pasture land. 
At the eastern base of the pass we came again to the Bagong ch'u, 
or Lung-tung ch'uf as it is also called, on account of the narrow 
cleft in the limestone rocks through which the stream here forces 
its way and which is said to resemble a "dragon's den " {lung- 
tung^. 

About two miles below this point we passed before the village 
of Bagong perched on the hillside some two hundred feet above 
the river, and stopped at the post station {fang) on the river 
bottom. The village is inhabited by about twenty families, and 
at the post station there are Chinese and Man-tzu kung-kuans. 
We stopped in the former, which is spacious and dirty. Each of 
the four or five soldiers stationed here brought me presents of 
vegetables and eggs, for which 1 had to give return presents of 
greater value, but it would never do to refuse the gifts, and these 
poor fellows are awfully hard up; they all told me that they never 
saw a rupee from one year's end to the other. The Drung-yig and 
his party stopped next door in the Man-tzu kung-kuan and 
amused themselves all the afternoon watching me from the roof 
The soldiers told me that large footed Chinese women are 
allowed by the Chinese government to go to Tibet, and only 
small footed ones are forbidden leaving China. This prohibition 
extends, or used to extend, to all countries outside of the eighteen 

* Bower calls this latter pass the Shila la. For a Chinese account of the road from 
Pungde to Ta-chien-lu, see Journ. Roy. Asiat. Soc, n. s. XXlll, 36-53. 
f Called by Bower, Socho river. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 321 

provinces, Turkestan, Mongolia, Korea, but I am under the 
impression ttiat it is no longer strictly enforced except as regards 
Tibet. 

Many of the soldiers take their native wives back with them to 
China, but these women soon tire of the restraint in which they 
have to live there and return in a year or two to their native land. 
Most of the soldiers I have seen are from the Chien-ch'ang* or 
Sung-pan T'ing. 

The soldiers here have little patches of tobacco growing on the 
tops of their houses; they also raise in little gardens, turnips, 
o-sung, cabbages, peas and beans. So far 1 have not met with 
potatoes, either among the Tibetans or the Chinese. 

September j. — So as to escape from the Drung-yig and his 
importunities, I decided to make two stages to-day, kan-chan as 
the Chinese call it. The valley below Bagong remains very 
narrow, but we saw numerous hamlets of ten or fifteen houses 
every mile or so, and the soil was, wherever possible, well culti- 
vated, wheat, barley and turnips being the staple crops. 

Crossing the river by a bridge called the Ze-chi zainba (and San- 
tao ch'iao by the Chinese), where there is a hamlet and a small 
gomba in which lives a Pusa.f we rode down the left bank as far 
as the mouth of a valley leading to the Moto shan of the Chinese. 
Here we forded the river; the bridge had been carried away by a 
spring freshet ; and passing in front of another gomba with a pretty 
park {linga) adjoining it,J we came after a few miles to the large 
village of Wangk'a, with some twenty to thirty good-sized 
Tibetan houses, a Chinese and a Tibetan station house {kung- 
kuan), a Chinese Sergeant {Pa-tsung) and six soldiers. We only 
stopped here long enough to take tea, and then rode on, crossing 
the river once more by a good bridge about a mile below the 
village. 



*0n the Chien-ch'ang district, see E. C. Baber, Travels and Researches in 
Western China, 58 et seq. 

f Bower gives the name of this lamasery as Khado Gomba. A short distance 
before reaching the bridge we passed near a large house on a little hillock. It looked 
like a castle. 1 fancy this was once the house of the "great chief Proul Tamba," 
of whom Hue {op. cit., II, 473, et seq.) speaks. 

X Bower calls this gomba Tara Gomba, but on his map it is placed on the left bank 
of the river. He makes out the altitude of Wangk'a (Wamkha) to be 12,225 feet. 



32 2 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 



About two miles below this point we came to the mouth of a 
valley leading in an easterly direction; up this our road ran, and 
having passed two or three hamlets we came, after about four and 
a half miles, to the summit of the Dzo la.* The last mile of the 
ascent was very steep and we had to do it on foot. A few stunted 
juniper trees grew on the mountain sides, and from every twig 
and branch of those nearest the road were hung stones. 
Apparently, for I could not get any opinion on this weighty sub- 
ject from the escort, this peculiar way of adorning the trees was 
in lieu of throwing the stones by the roadside to make an obo. 
Where these trees grew the mountain side was so steep that the 
stones would have rolled down into the valley below. 

The descent from the Dzo la was very steep and along a narrow 
ledge, in places badly washed away, so that the utmost care had 
to be taken to get the loaded horses along. The Lao-han, the 
most unlucky of men — and he always does everything just as one 
would like him not to do — let the two pack horses he was leading 
fall over the cliff. Fortunately they turned over as they fell and 
the loads of blankets, sheepskin ch'ubas, and the like they were 
carrying, saved them from being hurt. We got them back on 
the road after a lot of trouble and a fearful expenditure of abuse 
on my part on the relatives, male and female, of the Lao-han to 
the third and fourth generations. By the time the ponies were 
reloaded it was night, but luckily the moon shone brightly and 
we could make out our way pretty plainly. The hills along the 
gorge on the east side of the Dzo la seemed to me in places to be 
of some formation looking strangely like loess, but I had not time 
to examine them, and I formed by opinion only from the peculiar 
vertical loess-like face of the hill along the bank of the little stream 
we were following. 

We finally came to the Yung ch'u which flows due south in a 
quite broad and highly cultivated valley, each field in which was 
enclosed within high stone walls. In fact we could not find a 
spot to camp on except on the road, and not a blade of grass for 
our horses. It was too late to go to any house to buy hay, or get 
anything for ourselves, even wood to build a fire with. We were 
just opposite the hamlet of Kungsa,t but the bridge over the Yung 

* Bower's Jola la. 

t Probably Bower's Jindo. He calls the Yung ch'u the Charijansichu. The 
Bagong ch'u and the Yung ch'u empty into the Om ch'u. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 323 



ch'u having been swept away, we did not like to ford the swift 
and apparently deep river, and so picketed our ponies by the road- 
side and went supperless to sleep. 

September /.—We started early, and having passed through the 
hamlet of Kungsa we came after a mile to Gaga* at the mouth of 
the valley of Gam (called in Chinese Ang-ti). Gaga is a tumble- 
down, dirty hamlet of rough stone houses of two and three stories, 
some gutted, all dilapidated. At the four corners of the roof of 
the headman's house were poles with lung-ta fluttering on them 
and also large stag horns; the object of the latter is not evident; 
similar ornaments are frequently seen on the roofs of Chinese 
temples. There is a bridge over the Yung ch'u at Gaga, and the 
valley below this place seemed quite as carefully and extensively 
cultivated as higher up. 

Gam or Ang-tif is quite a large village very near the upper 
limit of cultivation. There is a Pa-tsung and six soldiers stationed 
here, but I did not stop in the village, but rode on some four or 
five miles to a spot where we found good grazing. Here we 
stopped for an hour to take tea and rest the horses before 
climbing the steep Gam la. We reached the summit at noon and 
fifteen miles to the southeast, at the mouth of a narrow valley 
down which the road led, we saw a grove of trees which marks 
the outskirts of the town of Chamdun-Draya. 

On the west side of the Gam la we saw large quantities of a 
peculiar looking plant with large violet flowers. The guide said 
the leaves of this plant were used, infused in water, as an aphro- 
disiac. Its name is ska-p'o gong- fag, X the Chinese call it hsueh- 
lien or "snow lily," and it is said to be found nowhere else than 
on the western side of the Gam la. 

The descent from the Gam la was quite easy as long as we 
followed the mountain sides, but when we reached the bottom of 
the gorge it became very slippery, and we had to lead our horses 
most of the way. 

When about eight miles from Draya and in front of the 
hamlet of Lower Yusa|| (Upper Yusa is about a mile and a half 

* Bower's Ghagwa. 

t Bower's Gamdi and (on his map) Gamtamch'e, altitude 13,025 feet. Tamche 
may be Drongcher " hamlet " or " village." 
XSaussurea tanguHca, Maximowitch, Mil. Biol., XI, 247. See Appendix. 
II Bower's Iswa. 



324 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET 



higher up the valley) we stopped for a while, and 1 sent the Hsien- 
sheng and the soldier who was guiding us ahead to see the Shou- 
pei of Draya and arrange with him for lodgings. Having waited 
for about an hour, we rode slowly on and after passing near a 
large gomba on a hill some distance south of the main valley, we 
came to Draya. We ascended the slope on which the town stands 
under a volley of stones and with much hooting from a lot of 
lamas and chabis (novices), who accompanied us as far as the 
kung-kuan, a very small building beside a Kuan-ti temple; it had 
good strong doors and we promptly closed them in our noisy 
escort's faces. 

A lot of drunken lamas managed to get in the kung-kuan and 
tried to start a fight, but we kept our tempers and finally got them 
out, telling the more peaceable ones to come back later on to see 
us. It was told me by the old kung-kuan keeper that the Seng- 
kuan (lama officials) had served out lots of ch'ang to the lamas 
in the hope that they would get me in a row and force me to 
leave the town. The laity behaved very well and took no part in 
the hubbub, except a few girls who, I was told, were concubines 
of the akas. 

It was quite in keeping with what I have now found out to be 
Chinese policy in this country for neither the Shou-pei nor 
any of his subordinates to turn up in this emergency. The Chi- 
nese in Tibet do not want to risk their popularity with the domi- 
nant class of the country (/. e., the lamas) by befriending for- 
eigners, to do which they would have to assert their authority 
without any advantage to themselves. Whenever China sees 
the necessity of doing so, it can eflfectually assert its supremacy 
in Tibet, for it is absurd to say that China is not the sovereign 
power there and that Chinese officials are only there to manage 
their own people and are tolerated, as it were, in the country. 
History, since the time of K'ang-hsi, or Ch'ien-lung at all events, 
and also recent events at Lh'asa and along the Indian border, prove 
conclusively that this is not so;* but China does not propose to 
hold Tibet by force of arms— the game would hardly be worth 
the candle; it is by diplomacy, by its superior knowledge of for- 



* I refer to the negotiations between the Lh'asa Amban and the Indian authorities 
for the conclusion of a commercial convention between Tibet and India. See on the 
position of the Amban in Tibet, Journ. Roy. Asiat. Soc, n. s. XXIU, 7 et seq.; 
Land of the Lamas, 291 et seq. 




Town of Chamdun-Draya. 



■^i 




Temple and Mani Wall on Outskirts of Bat'ang. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 325 

eign affairs and nations, and by conciliating the lamas, that it 
preserves its undoubted sway. 

Draya (Cha-ya the Chinese call it) or Chamdun Draya (By- 
ams-mdun Tag-yab is, 1 believe, the correct spelling of the 
name) is, like Ch'amdo, an ecclesiastical principality which, 
since 1719, has been nominally under the rule of Lh'asa. A high 
dignitary, a living Buddha of the Gelugpa sect, with the title of 
Chyab-gong Le-pe-she-rab, is its spiritual and temporal ruler.* 

The town is built on a gentle slope and faces southeast. The 
upper part of the hillside is taken up by a large gomba, the Gun- 
t'ok gomba, and below it is a confused mass of whitewashed 
houses, in which live, huddled together, about a hundred and fifty 
families of Tibetans and some thirty or forty Chinese. On the 
outskirts of the lower town is a large building, an episcopal 
palace 1 suppose I may call it, where resides a living Buddha, the 
Jyamba truku, and a number of lamas; this building is known as 
the Jyam-k'ang. Altogether there are between six hundred and 
seven hundred lamas in the town. Below the town, on the river 
bottom, are two dense groves of poplars, and taking everything 
into consideration, Draya is a very picturesque place. Four good- 
sized streams meet beside the town, the largest of which is the 
Ombo ch'u, which comes from the north and flows south-south- 
west, emptying into the Om ch'u, 1 suppose, not very many miles 
south or southwest of this town. Another stream, coming from 
the Po-jya la, beyond Ra-dje, which is about twenty-five miles 
southeast of Draya, empties into the Ombo ch'u in front of the 
town, and the stream which comes down from the Gam la, 
and another of about equal size coming from the north and which 
empties into the Gam la stream near the town, complete the 
number. 

The whole valley bottom around Draya is well cultivated; the 
crops are now ripe and the golden fields add not a little to the 
beauty of the scene, especially around the Jyam-k'ang, whose red 
walls and gilt spires look most picturesque rising up amidst broad 
fields of waving barley. 

September 5. — To-day has been employed, as have been all 
other days 1 have passed in Tibetan towns or villages, receiving 

* Sttjourn. Roy. Asiat. Soc, n. s. XXIII, 47, 250 and 272. Draya figures on 
d'Anville's Carte Genie du Thibet as Tsiia. 



326 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

dirty men and women, showing and explaining to them the 
various foreign things 1 carry with me, asking occasionally a 
question and endeavoring to elicit information without exciting 
suspicion. It is horribly tedious and a sad strain on one's patience, 
but a part of my work. 

The interpreter for Chinese of the Ta lama came to see me early 
this morning and asked me in his master's name to leave the 
town this afternoon, as he feared that the lamas would again get 
drunk and might stir up a row. I naturally refused and said I 
did not care if they did, that I was under Chinese protection, and 
the Shou-pei and his men would have to take care of me as I 
intended immediately informing the Major of what he had just 
told me. 

There was a big crowd of lamas and towns-people, both men 
and women, in the kung-kuan the whole day long, and the 
Hsien-sheng and I exerted ourselves to the utmost to make friends 
with them, and fortunately succeeded fairly well; they all went 
away saying that we were good friends, and that they hoped I 
would come back again. Trade was not brisk, for the people had 
nothing of any value or interest to sell me; one man brought me 
a couple of pecks oS. yadro* a small bulbous root called chih-mu 
yao by the Chinese, but I had no use for it; another brought a 
knife, and a third some wooden cups, but no one could supply 
me with the things I really wanted, a kettle, a felt hat and a pair 
of boots. The Chinese here say that Draya is a miserable place, 
with no trade of any kind beyond a little musk and some peltries, 
mostly leopard skins. It produces nothing but barley and wheat, 
and even a lao-shan trader could not make a living in it. 1 was 
surprised not to find potatoes grown here nor any vegetables save 
turnips and o-sung. The soldiers complained to me of their 
being paid in tea; the Liang-t'ai of Bat'angthey all said was pri- 
marily and chiefly responsible for the miserable state in which they 
are kept. They unanimously declared that he was a great rascal. f 

Goitres are very common here, but I have not seen any very 
large ones. Syphilitic diseases also appear to be very prevalent. 
I noticed two men to-day with very heavy beards, and another 

* It is, I believe, the Anemarhena asphodeloides, and is used in Ciiina as a 
medicine. 

f My relations with this gentleman were not of the most pleasant. See under date 
of September i6lh. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 327 

man had a great deal of hair on his chest, arms and legs. He is 
the only one of the kind I have seen in Tibet. The women are 
much undersized, and the tallest man I have remarked here was 
only five feet, ten inches. 

Most of the Chinese here know some of the French missionaries 
whom they have met at Bat'ang or farther east, and all speak 
most kindly and respectfully of them. One man told me that he 
had traveled some fifteen years ago with a father whom he called 
Hsiao-yeh. I cannot imagine what his European name can have 
been. 

I learned that in the sixth moon of this year three scholars from 
the Peking Tung-wen kuan, called Hsiieh, P'in and Yi, passed 
through Ch'amdo on their way to Lh'asa. They were surveying 
the country, doing a good deal of photographing, and proposed 
pushing their work as far as Nielam on the British frontier. I also 
heard that Captain Bower crossed the Om ch'u on the ice right in 
front of Ch'amdo, which he was not allowed to enter and where 
he nearly had a fight.* He then went to Meng-pu and Pungde, 
from which point he followed the same road 1 have been traveling 
along. He stopped at Draya for a day and visited the lamasery 
on the hill and its curiosities, among which a skull of gold espec- 
ially deserved attention. 1 suppose it is a libation bowl.f 

September 6. — The rain came down in torrents all night, but 
this morning the sky was beautifully clear. We left by seven 
o'clock accompanied by two soldiers who were to escort us as far 
as Ra-djong (Ra-dje it is locally called), the Lo-chia tsung of the 
Chinese. 

Crossing the Ombo ch'u near a fine grove of poplars by a very 
substantial bridge, we rode up the valley of the La-sung ch'u 
which comes from the flanks of the Po-jya la. We had not gone 
half a mile before one of the pack horses fell dead into the river, 
and we with difficulty recovered his load. It is a hard country 
on horse flesh, this makes the twenty-fourth pony I have lost 
since leaving Kumbum. 

*This is quite correct, see Bower, op. cit., 71, et seq. 

f Bower does not appear to have left his lodgings while in Draya. This is another 
one of the senseless lies told me. I leave it in my diary for it helps one to under- 
stand how many difficulties a traveler in these countries has to contend with when 
he wants to get any question straightened out. 



328 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

The valley is rather thickly peopled and around each little 
hamlet in its lower part grow patches of barley, not yet ripe for 
the sickle. The largest village we passed was Gumdo,* called by 
the Chinese 0-lun-to, near which place is a bridge over the river. 
We passed a number of little wayside shrines, the largest near 
the bridge of Gumdo was remarkable for a number of yak skulls 
nailed against the wall, with mantras cut or painted in red letters 
on them; 1 counted fifteen in a single row. 

I heard from one of the soldiers escorting me that the Ta 
Hutuketu of Draya or Chyab-gong Rinpoche Le-pe she-rab, as the 
Tibetans call him, lives at Magong (Yen-te fang of the Chinese), 
a place two days to the south of Draya. The present incarnation 
is a man of about sixty. My informant also said that at Draya 
there were between six hundred and eight hundred lamas, one 
hundred and eighty odd Chinese and one thousand Tibetans. 1 
fancy this estimate is slightly exaggerated. 

We rode up the valley till we were within about half a mile of 
Ra-dje, when we camped on the hillside at a spot where grazing 
was exceptionally fine. We were all glad to be in camp instead 
of having to huddle together in a little room in a filthy kung-kuan. 

One of the Tibetan yak drivers on the ula had a supplementary 
thumb growing on his right hand; this malformation appears to 
be as common in this country as in China. Two of the soldiers 
from Ra-djong came down to camp and brought me some eggs, 
vegetables and milk. They told us that to-morrow we would 
have an extra strong escort as the road over which we shall have 
to travel is infested by Chakba (brigands). 

1 forgot to note that honey is quite abundant in Draya, it is 
produced, I believe, to the south of that town in the villages 
near the Om ch'u.f 

September 7. — We started out in great style this morning, for, 
beside the usual dirty Chinese ragamuffin of a soldier, we had six 
Tibetan soldiers bristling over with matchlocks, spears and 
swords. 

* Probably Bower's Caring doba. 

t The hives are made in hollowed out logs about four or five feet long, two being 
tied together and hung up under the eves of the house. The bees go in by a small 
hole made in one end of the log. Similar hives are in common use in many parts of 
the world. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 329 

About six miles south of Ra-dje we came to the head of the 
valley and the summit of the Po-jya la, whence we descended by 
a very easy declivity into a valley known as the Jya lung or 
"Long valley," and called by the Chinese Chia-pa k'ou or 
" Brigand's dale," from its being the usual haunt of bands of rob- 
bers known as the Sanghe chakba. These robber bands live 
along the Dre ch'u above Bat'ang and about five days' ride from 
this valley, and they have for the last hundred and fifty years, at 
least, waylaid travelers here and at two other well-known points 
along the highway, in the gorge south of the A-djod la (down 
which we will travel to-morrpw) and on the Dre ch'u in front of 
Drubanang, a day's ride from Bat'ang, and where travelers are 
ferried across the river.* 

It is a curious fact that these robbers should have selected for 
their field of operations the only road in Tibet which is patrolled 
by the Emperor of China's troops, and that they should have 
been able to carry on their business for such a length of time. At 
present the Chinese will take no action against these Chakba as, 
officially, they have ceased to exist, having been exterminated (on 
paper) not many years ago by an officer sent from Bat'ang or 
Ta-chien-lu, 1 do not know which, for that purpose. It is impos- 
sible to kill them off a second time, and all that can be done is to 
make the Tibetans fight them themselves whenever necessary. 

Much against the wishes of my escort, I stopped for lunch in 
the Jya lung, where the grazing was, as might be expected from 
the valley being deserted, splendid. We saw, while drinking our 
tea, three or four men riding down the other side of the valley at 
some distance from where we were, but they did not appear to 
be anxious to meet us, and we on our side made no advances, so 
they quietly passed on. 

Leaving the Long valley where it bends eastward, we crossed 
the Ken-jya la and entered the valley of the Le ch'u, a good-sized 
stream flowing in a west-northwest direction. It is a sluggish 



*SttJourn. Roy. Asiat. Soc, n. s. XXI II, 39, 40, 43. Cf. Bower, op. cii., 
81. He calls them Chukkas and Chukpas. According to a Tibetan geographical 
work entitled Djainling Yeshi, the country of these brigand tribes is called Ba-Sangan 
or " Sangan of Bat'ang." On Hassenstein's "Kariedes Tibetanischen und Indo- 
Chinesischen grenzgebietes'" in Petermann's Geog. Mittheilungen, 1882, Tafel 
10, the iiome of the ' Saguen rauber " is correctly put down on the Dre ch'u 
above Bat'ang. 



330 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

and very muddy brook of inconsiderable depth and not fifty feet 
broad, but it showed unmistakable signs of frequently overflow- 
ing its bank, and must often justify the term of " raging torrent " 
applied to it in the Wei-Tsang t'u chih* We followed up the right 
bank of the stream in a southeasterly direction for about seven 
miles till we came to Adjod (called A-tsu fang by the Chinese), 
where we camped in a little meadow {ping pa-tzu in Chinese) 
below the village. 

The people, men and women, were engaged in harvesting the 
barley, and I noticed some very handsome girls, who in type 
and dress reminded me of those of Kanze in the Horba country, 
though larger and taller than they. There is a Wai-wei here with 
six Chinese soldiers, and they and the people were very kind and 
friendly; unfortunately it began raining towards dusk and every- 
one went home, leaving us under our tent in the meadow, which 
was soon transformed into a pond, but it was too late to change 
our camping ground, and so we had to make the best of it for the 
night. 

The only local products of Adjod are a poor variety of pottery 
and swords and knives of no great value or beauty. At Nyewa 
(which we pass through to-morrow), swords are also manufac- 
tured, but I cannot learn where the iron ore is procured. 



September 8. — We got up feeling pretty seedy and stiff, and 
were glad to start off and walk a few miles, as far as the top of the 
Adjod la. For the first time on the journey we had a Chinese 
soldier armed with sword and matchlock ; usually the knife in their 
chopsticks case is their only weapon. Five Tibetan soldiers also 
accompanied us, to protect us against the possible attacks of 
Chakba on the south side of the Adjod la. 

The country between Adjod and Nyewaf (Shih-pan-kou of the 
Chinese) is desert, and the latter place, where there are four 
Chinese soldiers and about ten native families, is dirty and uninter- 
esting. A little barley is raised around the village. Nyewa is on 
the right bank of a stream flowing westward, and about a mile 
out of the way of the traveler going to Gart'ok, for the highroad 
strikes up a gorge to the east of the village. 

*Journ. Roy. Asiat. Soc, n. s. XXIII, 51. 
t Bower's Asi. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 331 

We did not stop at Nyewa but pushed rapidly on as the stage 
to Lart'ang is a long one (about twenty-five miles). The Tang- 
yao shan which we had to cross on leaving the Nyewa valley, and 
whose Tibetan name I could not learn* — the soldier who escorted 
me being a recruit and only speaking a few words of Tibetan — 
marks the boundary in this direction between Draya and Mar- 
K'ams, or "Lower K'ams," a province belonging to Lh'asa with 
Gart'ok, Chiang-k'a in Chinese, as its capital. f 

The descent from the Tang-yao shan led down a little gorge 
at the lower end of which are two hamlets. Thence crossing a 
low col we entered the broad Lar fang or " Plain of Lar" (A-la 
fang of the Chinese), where we camped beside the little Trigu 
gomba on the bank of a stream flowing southward down a narrow 
valley, the lower part of which appeared to be covered with dense 
forest growth. About forty akas reside in this lamasery. Lar 
t'ang extends for about four miles in an east and west direc- 
tion, and a couple of villages occupy commanding positions on the 
hills on its northern side. The country hereabout is very bare, not 
a tree to be seen anywhere, and in the plain there is hardly any 
ground under cultivation; it is at too great an altitude. 1 noticed 
a few domestic fowls in some of the villages; they are the first I 
have seen among the Tibetans. 

We had not much more than made camp when there was a 
violent thunderstorm and a good deal of snow fell on the mount- 
ains south of us. These mountains, by the way, appear to be of 
considerable height and trend very nearly southeast and northwest. 
1 fancy the Om ch'u flows along the nearer side of them, and that 
consequently that river cannot at this point be over six or eight 
miles from where we are now camped; probably it flows by the 
mouth of the little wooded valley below the gomba. The Om 
ch'u valley must here be quite wide and thickly peopled, if one 
may believe the descriptions given me of it by the people along the 
road, who spoke of it as a very rich Rongwa. One man gave me 
some twenty little peaches which had come from this Rongwa. 

* Bower calls it Thongia la. Tang-yao may be the Chinese pronunciation of the 
native name, which perhaps is Tongjya. 

fThe name of this province is variously written Merlam, Merkang, Merkam, 
Markam, but it is certainly Mar-K'ams. There is a Bar k'ams adjacent to or forming 
a part of this province. Possibly there is a Teu (Stod) K'ams or " Upper K'ams." 
Yar-mar, yara-rnara, are well known Tibetan terms for "upper" and "lower." 



332 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 



They were too green to eat, and 1 fancy they are from wild trees, 
as the Tibetans do not cultivate fruit anywhere 1 have been. 

Some of the akas and people living around the gomba came and 
chatted with us; they were very jolly, and their language so 
closely resembled that of Lh'asa that we could converse freely 
with them. The language of the Draya people, on the other 
hand, differed so from any we had ever heard that we could 
hardly understand one word in ten, though they had no trouble 
in understanding us. All the men who came to my tent carried 
little bamboo flutes (Jingbu), on which some of them played 
quite agreeably, and several of which 1 bought. 

The road we have been following since Pungde is the one de- 
scribed in the Wei Tsang t'u chih, but either the country has very 
much changed since 1791, when that book was written, or else 
its authors had very vivid imaginations. For example, it says, 
speaking of the Adjod la, that it is "a great snowy mountain 
where the cold is so intense that it blinds one." Of the Dzo la, 
between Gaga and Wangk'a, it says that "it is a great snowy 
mountain over which runs a dangerous and ice-covered trail, 
where the cold wrinkles up one's flesh and cracks the skin of the 
hands." And so on for every part of the road we have been over. 
This book is, however, very valuable and accurate as to most 
things, especially things historical and ethnographical. 



September 9. — Heavy rain, as usual, fell during the night, but this 
morning the sky was clear. About two miles east of where we 
had camped we passed out of Lar-t'ang* and descended a valley 
densely covered with hollyf and rhododendrons on its north side, 
and with pines on the hills along its southern face. This valley 
drains the country to the southeast as far as Rishod, the stream 
bending southward when about seven and a half miles west of that 

* Bower appears to call this pass Thongia la. 

1 1 call it "holly, but it is called by the Chinese chHng k'ang or " Evergreen oak." 
In the dialect of Lit'ang it is known as belo. The French missionaries call it "chene 
a feuilles de houx," though all the leaves on a given tree are not like hotly leaves. 
Jaeschke gives the word be-k'rod as meaning "oak forest." He further says, s. v. 
ch'a-ra " ck'a-ra oak, also tnon ch'a-ra (on account of its growing only on the 
southern ranges of the Himalaya mountains, inhabited mostly by Non-Tibetans) in 
several species, with pointed, evergreen leaves, a tree much inferior in beauty to the 
English oak." Dr. Hooker, Himal. Journ., 11, 114, mentionsa speciesof oak (Q. 
annulata ?) growing on the outer Sikkim ranges to an altitude of 10,000 feet. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 333 

village. There are numerous small hamlets all the way to Rishod 
(Li-shu in Chinese) and the country is well cultivated. 

We found Rishod such a dirty, muddy and unprepossessing 
place and the kung-kuan so uninviting, that we continued up the 
valley about five miles and camped at the foot of the Rishod la,* 
which separates us from the She ch'u on which stands the town 
of Gart'ok. Holly and pines reappeared on the hillsides about three 
miles above Rishod but they were not so large as those seen in 
the morning at the west end of the valley. We killed a few 
crossoptilons after camping; they were very plentiful and tame. 
They, together with wild pigeons, magpies, a small bird like a 
sparrow, and an occasional woodpecker are the only birds 1 have 
so far noticed in the country, crows, eagles and birds of that kind 
excepted. 1 am assured now that it only takes four or five days 
to go from Draya to Derge drongcher; this agrees well with what 
I heard in '89 in Derge. If no bad luck overtakes me, 1 think I 
will be able to reach Shanghai in about forty-five days, or by the 
20th of October. 

September 10. — Another heavy thunderstorm during the night. 
The ascent of the Rishod la was neither very long nor steep. 
There are in reality two cols to cross here, for from the Rishod la one 
descends a little and then one has to climb over another shoulder 
of the mountain before descending into the She ch'u valley. From 
this second summit we caught a glimpse of a wooded hillside 
about fifteen miles to the south, and some Tibetans who were 
traveling along with us said that Gart'ok was at the foot of that 
hill. The Rishod la and adjacent mountains are entirely composed 
of red sandstone conglomerate disposed in horizontal strata. On 
the top of the pass was a scaffold of three poles, on the cross one 
of which was the dried-up head of a Sanghe brigand, executed 
here in the early part of the year by the Gart'ok authorities. 

Here, again, the authors of the Wei Tsang t'u chih are too 
imaginative; they described the Rishod la as "a great mountain, 
all the year covered with snow, and across which there blows, 
even in summer, a cold blast which pierces one to the bone." 
From this work it also appears that this second pass is properly 
the Rishod la; it gives the first one no name, only calls it " a little 
mountain." 

* Bower's Khonsa La. 



334 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

Four miles and a half below the pass we came to a little Chi- 
nese post station called Lu-ho fang where we found a Chinese 
soldier with his Tibetan wife and a number of children.* He and 
his family were the cleanest and best mannered people 1 think. I 
have seen in this country. 1 stopped here to lunch and the soldier 
gave me a few dried tlsh — he had caught them in the stream near 
by — some mushrooms and eggs. 

From about two miles below Lu-ho fang the mountain sides 
are covered with fine pines and junipers and this forest growth 
continues until near Gart'ok. We only passed a few black tents 
on the way down, and did not see a single hamlet until within 
two miles of the town. About a mile above the town we passed 
the mouth of a gorge running west-southwest up which runs a 
well beaten trail; this is probably the highroad to Southern Tibet, 
and the one followed by Kishen Singh when coming back from 
Ta-chien-lu. 

Garf ok is at the base of the hills on the west side of the valley, 
about a quarter of a mile from the river.f There is a small gomba 
behind the town in which live between two hundred and three 
hundred lamas (Gelupa), and along the river bank is a pretty 
linga of poplar trees. A Deba, appointed from Lh'asa, resides at 
Gart'ok, and there is also a Chinese Captain {Shou-pei), a Sergeant 
(^Pa-tsung) and a garrison of one hundred and forty soldiers, from 
which are drawn all the detachments stationed along the highroad 
from here to Bat'ang territory. The Tibetan population of Gart'ok 
is estimated at two hundred families (nine hundred souls); there 
are also three Chinese firms of Shen-hsi traders and two or three 
Yiln-nan or Ssij-ch'uan ones which carry on a small business in 
musk, the only export of any value to China from this district. 

1 found the kung-kuan quite a large and commodious building, 
and we had two good rooms assigned us with a kitchen and 
sufficient stable room for our poor ponies, who are all on their 
last legs. There is, I should remark, a small Kuan-ti miao here 
and the whole place is much Chinesefied. Pigs, fowls and half- 
breed children tumble about the muddy lanes together, and there 

* Bower camped here. He calls this station Mongothong, and gives its altitude as 
13,700 feet. 

\ The French missionaries established a station here in 1861, but after a year or so 
they had to withdraw to Bonga, farther south. See C. H. Desgodins, Le Thibet, 
93, et seq. Hue, op. cit., II, 498, calls it Kiang-tsa. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 335 

are a number of shops where different odds and ends are offered 
for sale. 

In the evening the women and children sang prayers in chorus 
for over an hour seated in a circle before their doors ; this is a 
custom commonly observed in most parts of Tibet, but which 1 
had not remarked on this journey, probably because I have most 
of the time been among Bonbo and Drupa. 

The Shou-pei was away, acting as arbitrator in a quarrel 
between two villages, but the Pa-tsung, a handsome young 
Mohammedan from Ta-chien-lu, whose people I knew, was 
very kind and made us as comfortable and as much at home as he 
could. He had been stationed for a number of years at Lh'asa and 
had adopted many of the customs of that locality, among others 
he smoked the hubble-hubble in use there among the Kashmiris; 
his wife was a handsome Lh'asan woman. 

September ii. — The Pa-tsung sent me this morning a basket 
of grapes, some peaches {semkam) and apricots, and a big basket 
of vegetables. The fruit all came from the Rongma ("Low 
country or farm lands " ) along the Dre ch'u, some two or three 
days south-southeast of here. The fruit, peaches and apricots, 
were very poor and, I think, wild.* At Gart'ok cabbages, tur- 
nips, o-sung, wheat, barley and oats are grown, and I am inclined 
to think that the oats are a wild variety,! like that which one sees 
in our southwestern country. New Mexico and Colorado. Pigs, 
fowls, cats, and Chinese dogs are also common here. 

I had to ask the Pa-tsung to supply me with ula ponies and pack 
animals as not one of mine is fit to travel ten miles, and I have 
hardly any money left. 1 had considerable difficulty in selling 
to-day some musk 1 had bought at Song-chyang sumdo and else- 
where in Jayde, and could only get about the same price 1 had 
originally paid for it. If I could have afforded to hold on to it 
until I had reached Ta-chien-lu I might have realized a considerable 

* Alph. de CandoUe, Origine des Plantes Cultivies, 177, is inclined to think that 
the peach tree comes originally from China. The same author ( op. cit. p. 173 ) 
thinks that the apricot tree is a native of the region extending from the northwest 
of China to India. 

t Moorcroft, Travels, II, 27, makes mention of wild oats in Ladak. De CondoUe 
{op. cit., 299) says that mention is made of oats in a Chinese historical work cover- 
ing the period from 618 to 907 A. D. He thinks the plant originally came from 
eastern temperate Europe and Tartary (p. 302). 



336 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

profit. As it is, I only got about sixty rupees, little enough for a 
month's journey. 1 will have to try and borrow some money at 
Bat'ang. 

The Pa-tsung has acted very kindly and issued, on presentation 
of my passport and when I had explained how short 1 was of 
funds, an ula order good as far as Ta-chien-lu. It is a big weight 
off my mind for I really have no right to ula, which the Tibetans 
frequently refuse to Chinese officials. I am told that if we double 
stages — no very difficult thing — we can reach Ta-chien-lu in 
fifteen days. The harvest feast with lama dancing is being cele- 
brated to-day just outside the town. All those who have tents 
have put them up on the meadow below the gomba, where are 
also camping people from all the neighboring hamlets; they are 
making merry, drinking and singing while the lamas are having 
the usual lama dance, a few of their number prancing about with 
hideous masks on to the accompaniment of drums, cymbals and 
hautboys; the Ta lama and the gomba authorities sit under a tent, 
drink tea and look on. The Chinese of Kumbum call such dances 
t'iao-shai hou, the Pekinese, tiao kuei. 

There is a Chinese here who told me that he had traveled with 
T. T. Cooper;* he spoke very kindly of him, and said he was a 
most excellent man. He went from Bat'ang to A-tun-tzii with 
him, I think he said. According to his statement Cooper had 
with him a Hankow Chinese who spoke and wrote foreign 
languages; this as 1 remember, is quite correct. Cooper had a 
Christian who spoke Latin. f 

For the first time in Tibet I notice quantities of house sparrows. 
The people call them cheuba.X 

September 12. — We left Gart'ok at 7.30 with a Chinese soldier 
and two Tibetan ones, the latter supplied by the Mar-K'ams Deba. 
After fording the She ch'u in front of the town, we rode down 

* Cooper traveled in 1868 from Ta-chien-lu to Bat'ang and thence south to Wei- 
hsi, whence he was forced to return to Ta-chien-lu by the way he had come. (See 
Travels of a Pioneer of Commerce.) 

t His name was George Phillips. He had been educated at Macao. See T. T. 
Cooper, op. cit., 15. 

jjaeschke gives the name as chyapo or chyavo, written bya-po and skya-vo 
respectively. Bonvalot {op. cit., 339) says he heard sparrows twittering at So gomba 
on the Su ch'u. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 337 

the left bank of the river for about three miles, when we crossed 
the stream again and continued down the right bank until in front 
of P'ulag, when we crossed back to the left one. 

The She ch'u valley below Gart'ok is well timbered with pine 
and juniper trees ; in places even the valley bottom is covered with 
them. This valley is one of the finest I have seen ; but unfortuna- 
tely for the people, the highroad runs the whole length of it, and 
the inhabitants are ground down and interfered with in their work 
by the constant ula services they are called on to perform. 
Fortunately for them, however, the ula is changed at each village. 
Thus between Gart'ok and Guh'u (nineteen miles) we changed it 
four times, the first time when only three miles from our starting 
point, and a second time less than one and one-half miles farther 
on. At P'ulag there was not a single yak to be found when 1 
arrived, and I feared that 1 would have to stop over here (it is the 
regular stage from Gart'ok), and the prospect was not unpleasing 
as the kung-kuan is large and comfortable, but after waiting an hour 
or so some horses came in from Gart'ok and we were able to push on. 

The She ch'u valley is well cultivated, but villages are few; we 
only passed three between Gart'ok and P'ulag. This is the usual 
thing in Tibet ; the people will not live near the highroads ; they pre- 
fer more remote, though possibly poorer, localities, for there they are 
not interfered with by traveling officials. Leaving the She ch'u 
valley at P'ulag we turned eastward up a narrow valley leading to 
the Latse la* and every where covered with pines, holly-oaks and 
juniper trees. Having crossed the pass we descended to Guh'u, 
or Ku-shu in Chinese. From the summit of the Latse la I saw, 
about twenty miles to the west-southwest, a range of bare, jagged 
peaks here and there covered with snow. I was told that they 
were in Mar-K'ams. 

It was dark when we reached the kung-kuan at Guh'u, and 1 
was much surprised to find a candle burning on a table in a clean 
room, a big fire-bowl glowing on a stand, and a pot of tea and 
china cups ready on the table. The kung-kuan keeper turned 
out to be, not only an admirable house-keeper, but a first rate 
cook. He came in, made his bow, and asked if I would allow 
him to cook my supper, he was something of a cook he modestly 
said, and would like to show us what he could do. Having only 
stipulated with him that we should have ching fan ("clean food "), 

* Mang shan of the Chinese. Bower's Lamba la and Dosi la. The two are only 
separated by a few hundred yards. 



338 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 



for we were Mohammedans and could eat none other, he set to 
work and soon served us a capital meal in six courses. Not only 
had he good, plump fowls and eggs, but all the condiments dear to 
the Chinese cordon-bleu, soy, kan-fen, ginger, red peppers, salted 
vegetables, etc., besides rice, vermicelli and last, but not least, good 



a 







BAMBOO JEW'S-HARP AND CASE— Full Size (Bat'ang). 

bread. The Hsien-sheng and I, the ula and the other two men 
had not yet arrived, sat long over this wonderful meal, and felt so 
happy when it was over that we called in a lot of the natives and 
had them dance to the dulcet sounds of the jew's-harp {k'a-pi). 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 339 

This most ancient, primitive and popular instrument is brought to 
this part of the country (it is only used in and around Bat'ang), 
from the Ts'ak'a lung and the country to the south of here, and is 
not of Tibetan origin, nor, I think, make. It consists of three 
bamboo harps each of different tone, all of them played together 
held in the left hand, the one above the other, that with the 
highest note at the top. The harp with the deepest note is said 
to give the p' ka {p'o skad) or "male note," the middle one 
gives the ding kiior " middle note, " and the sharper note is known 
as mo kd or " female note." Three or four persons frequently play 
together in unison, and nearly every girl or woman carries a k'a- 
pi suspended from her girdle in a bamboo case, usually prettily 
decorated with chevron shaped carvings and bands of colored 
quills. The Chinese of Kan-su call the jew's-harp k'oii hsien; the 
Pekinese name for this instrument is Kojc ch'i* The Tibetan 
name is an exact counterpart of the Kan-su one, for k'a means 
"mouth," and pi stands for pi-wang, the three stringed banjo 
{san hsien). 

At Geh'u live twenty Tibetan families and three Chinese soldiers. 
The village is shaded by fine poplars and is, I fancy, a rather 
desirable place, as far as climate goes, as it is well sheltered on 
every side by mountains and forests; at all events the Chinese 
here seemed to like it very much, and I do not hesitate to pro- 
nounce its kung-kuan the best in Tibet. 

September ij. — The valley in which Guh'u stands runs nearly 
north and south, f so we only crossed it, ascending the Hondo la 
through a country covered with fine pines, and then traveling 
down a narrow but well cultivated valley to the important village 
of Lh'amdun (Nan-tun of the Chinese). J This point is at the 
junction of two roads leading, the one to Bat'ang and Ta-chien lu, 
the other to A-tun-tzu, Wei-hsi and Li-chiang Fu in Yun-nan. 
It is the most easterly point of Mar-K'ams in this direction, the 
Bat'ang boundary being on the summit of the Bam la a few miles 
to the northeast of it. The district is ruled by a K'anpo sent from 
Lh'asa and who lives in a little gomba behind the village. He 

*The Pekinese jew's-harp is of iron and very like the one used among us, 

\ Bower calls the stream which flows by Guh'u (his Goshu) Mongothongchu river. 

X Bonvalot's Leindiinne; Bower's Lande, 



34° JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

and his twenty akas belong to the Sachyapa school. There are 
some fifteen to twenty families of Tibetans and three or four Chi- 
nese soldiers here, also a Kuan-ti miao and a fairly good kung- 
kuan. 

We stopped for an hour at Lh'amdun while the ula was being 
changed, drank some tea and ate some yellow raspberries (here 
called trisui) offered me by the soldiers. 1 noticed in use here a 
good many Chinese utensils, especially of iron and copper, among 
which a curiously shaped cast iron teapot, cylindrical in shape and 
over a foot deep and five or six inches in diameter.* The copper- 
ware comes, I am told, from the Chien-ch'ang, from which 
district, by the way, comes also the best quality of the red leather 
so much used in Tibet. The wooden bowls, plates, round covered 
boxes and other similar utensils in use at Gart'ok and all through 
this part of the country are brought from Yiin-nan. 

Leaving Lh'amdun we passed over the Bam la.f We saw on 
the summit of the pass a large red sandstone slab half sunk in the 
ground. This marks the boundary between Mar-K'ams and Bat'- 
ang or, as the people say, between Deba djong and Jyade, for from 
Bat'ang to Ta-chien-lu is also known by this latter name. I was 
told that there was an inscription on it, but on the part now below 
the surface of the ground. J About four miles below the pass we 
came to the village of Bam-ding (Pang-mu in Chinese)! where we 
had again to change the ula. While it was being got together I 
rested in the headman's house and his wife, a fine, well dressed 
and agreeable woman, gave me pomegranates {supong) and pears 
from the Rongma, a district two days south of here, and some 
walnuts (Jaga), which grow in great quantities near this place. 

The dress of the women at Lh'amdun and Bam-ding differs 
considerably from that worn farther west. It consists of a petti- 
coat of striped pulo with heavy box plaits behind, a waistcoat 
{kan-chien), and a loose gown coming to the knee. Women 

* In Shan-hsi and parts of Shen-hsi a similar kettle is in use. 

t Or laka; this latter term is very frequently used in eastern Tibet for the former, 
but more correct, one. 

:j:This boundary line was marked by a joint commission in 1726. Sttjoum. 
Roy. Asiat. Soc, n. s., XXlll, 46. 

II Bower's Bon. Capt. Gill, coming from Bat'ang and on his way to A-tun-tzu, 
traversed Bam-ding and passing over the eastern shoulder of the Bam la, struck the 
She ch'u (his Kiang Ka river) about eighteen miles south of that village. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET, ^^l 

wear their hair in one heavy braid with a large tassel at the end. 
They have no ornaments save earrings of the Bat'ang pattern, 
and numerous finger nngs. The men's costume presents no 
peculiarity; it is the usual eastern Tibetan one. 

It took a long time to get the ula ready, and when it came there 
was endless wrangling about the division of loads, each person 
wanting the animal belonging to him to carry a light one. The 
question was finally decided in the way usual in Tibet: each person 
on the ula gave one of his or her garters, no two pairs of which 
are woven in the same pattern, to the headman and he, holding 
them behind his back drew out first one garter, then another and 
placed one on each load at random, when the owner of the garter 
picked up the load and put it on his beast without murmuring.* 

We made about five miles down the valley to a small hamlet 
called Djin-k'ang ding (near Mang-lif of the Chinese), where we 
stopped for the night in the headman's house, a portion of which 
is set off as a kung-kuan. It is a fine three-storied stone build- 
ing, and the room given us was a very nice one. After dark the 
room was lit by means of chips of pitch pine burnt on a fiat stone, 
though the usual butter lamps were not wanting. We got the 
women of the house to dance for us, and 1 awarded prizes of bits 
of ribbon to the best performers. While dancing they played on 
the jew's-harp and the step was a slow shuffle, a poor imitation 
I thought, of a darkey dance. We were again given pomegranates, 
pears and walnuts here ; the first named fruit is small and flavorless, 
and is used more as an ornament, something like the citron called 
" Buddha's hand " (Fo shou) in China. 

September i^. — Below Djin-k'ang dingj the valley narrows to a 
mere ravine covered with a dense growth of pines, holly-leaved 
oaks and junipers under which is a thick undergrowth of creepers 
and ferns ; wild cherry and apricot trees are also plentiful. The road 
leads along the side of the hills, and the stream which flows 
down the valley is, after a little while, hundreds of feet below the 
road, dashing over rocks and fallen trees and hurrying on to the 
Dre ch'u which it meets a few miles to the east. 

*Conf. Bonvalot, op. cit., 363. 

t Capt. Gill gives the Tibetan name of IVlang-li (which i4 on the east side of the 
valley just opposite Djin-k'ang ding) as Mung-M'heh. 
XDing in Bam ding, Djin-k'ang ding, Taga ding, etc., means " village, hamlet." 



342 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

Continuing northward to tlie other end of this pretty valley we 
came to Kondjinka (Kung-tzu ting of the Chinese), where we 
changed the ula. The house of the headman is a large and com- 
modious building, and much of the interior finish of the rooms is 
Chinese. I suppose Chinese carpenters from Bat'ang built it; they 
travel all over Tibet.* The women of the house were taking 
their dinner while we rested, and 1 noticed that they ate green 
peppers with their tsamba, a mixture I had not yet seen in this 
country. A variety of vegetables are raised around this village, 
but, taking them as a whole, the Tibetans are not a vegetable- 
eating people. Pigs, fowls, and pigeons were plentiful here. 

When the Wei Tsang Vu chili was written (1791), the high- 
road between this point and Djin-k'ang ding did not apparently 
run up this valley, but to the west of it, for it is said that between 
these two localities "a big mountain, infested by brigands, has 
to be crossed."! 

A half mile beyond Kondjink'a we reached the head of the 
valley,! and at the mouth of the one beyond it, about seven miles 
away, we saw the Dre ch'u flowing in a narrow valley on either 
side of which rise steep, bare mountains of reddish brown color, 
the waters of the great river dyed of the same color. 

The valley leading down to the river is covered for most of its 
length with dense foliage and thick undergrowth. We only 
passed two villages, one called Taga ding or "the Walnut vil- 
lage," from the wide-spreading walnut trees surrounding and half 
hiding the village. Here we again changed the ula, to again 
change it a couple of miles farther down, just before reaching the 
river. At Taga ding I noticed for the first time some small true 
oak trees. II 

We stopped for the night at Gura (Kung-la in Chinese), about 
a mile up the valley of the Dre ch'u. The valley bottom is here 
about a quarter of a mile wide on the right bank of the river, and 
the hamlet stands some two hundred feet above the river, while 
on the left bank, as far as I could see up and down the valley, the 
mountains seemed to rise precipitously from the water's side. 

* See Land of the Lamas, 194. 
\Stt Journ. Roy. Asiat. Soc, n. s. XXIII, 49. 
I Gill's Kong-Tze-La-Ka pass and Bower's Khonji-!a pass. 

I Bower says (p. 85) that in this valley he saw squirrels on the trees. He calls 
Taga ding, Tangati. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 343 

Around Gura millet of two varieties {huang mi and hsaio mi the 
Chinese call them), squashes, peppers, wheat, etc., are grown. 
We camped beside a little cattle-pen, as the houses at this place 
were far from attractive, small, dirty and dilapidated, and overrun 
with vermin and children. 

September 75. — A Tibetan escort of six well-armed men 
accompanied us to-day as far as the ferry across the Dre ch'u, 
which is at a point called Tsobo ch'uk'a, about two and a half 
miles south of Drubanang. This precaution was taken because 
the Sanghe chakba are said to frequently attack caravans while in 
the act of loading or unloading at this place.* 

The road all the way to the ferry was over rocks and through 
sand and gravel, the mountains rising precipitously from the river 
bank; here and there a little brush grew along the water's edge. 
The only incident of the day was an encounter with the first snake 
I had seen in Tibet, a water snake, I think, about four feet long 
marked with longitudinal bands of light green and black. 

We were rapidly ferried across the river in a large flat-bottomed 
boat made and manned by Chinese soldiers. There are two of 
these boats kept for this ferry, but one is usually anchored 
in front of Drubanang and only used in an emergency, or when 
the other is being repaired. There is no charge made for ferrying 
travelers and their cattle over, the ferry being maintained by the 
Chinese government. 

At Drubanang (Chu-pa lung in Chinese) there are a few acres 
of ground under cultivation on either side of the river, and in the 
village live ten or twelve families of natives and four or five Chinese 
soldiers. The ula had to be changed here, and as all the cattle 
were on the right bank of the river and it required a long time to 
get them over to the village, 1 decided to push on without them, 
instructing the Lao-han to come on with them, while I, the Hsien- 
sheng and Kao pa-erh rode on to Bat'ang, still a long way off. 

About eleven and a half miles farther up the river we came to 
the little hamlet of Shui-mo-k'ouf where we tried to get fresh ponies, 
but the headman refused to give me any until the ula from Druba- 

* Gill came near having an encounter with some of these brigands when crossing the 
river at this point in 1877. See River 0/ Golden Sands, 11, 209. 

\ Probably Gill's Leh and Bower's Lah; there is here a little Ih'a-k'ang between 
the village and the river. 



344 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

nang had arrived. After a good deal of wrangling, 1 got one horse 
for Kao pa-erh and we rode off as rapidly as we could, as it was 
beginning to get dark and we had a steep mountain to cross and 
about eleven miles to make before reaching the town. 

A mile or so above Shui-mo-k'ou, or rather at another little hamlet 
called by the Chinese Shan ken (or '"Foot of the hill),* we left 
the Dre ch'u and crossing a steep mountain by a very rough and 
stony path down which we had to grope our way in the dark, 
we came into the valley of Bat'ang, the "garden spot of 
Tibet." 

The Ba-ch'ung ch'u or Bat'ang river empties into the Dre ch'u 
at the base of the mountain we had just crossed. The Bat'ang 
valley is not over a quarter to a half mile wide and is well culti- 
vated and thickly peopled ; little hamlets and detached farm-houses, 
each surrounded by a grove of walnut or fruit trees, line the road 
from the foot of the hill to the town. 

It was nine o'clock when we reached Bat'ang; the town was 
asleep and we had much difficulty in getting the kung-kuan 
keeper to open the door of that building for us, and when he did, 
he was very impudent and we had to wrangle for half an hour 
before we could get him to give us some tea and tsamba. 

It was with a deep sense of relief that 1 closed to-night my 
traverse book and packed up my prismatic compass which I have 
constantly had in my hand since the first day of last December. 
Thirty-four hundred miles of surveying is no joke, and now that 
my traverse has joined that surveyed by Capt. Gill, whose accuracy 
and care we Tibetan travelers have learned to appreciate, I can 
safely bring my mapping to an end. 

September i6. — Ba (Pa-t'ang of the Chinese) has been so fre- 
quently described f that 1 will say but little of the place itself. 
There are some two hundred families of Tibetans living here and 
a hundred odd Chinese, of whom, perhaps, thirty or forty are 
soldiers. In the great lamasery, which is on the west side of the 
town, live about 1,500 akas, the total population of the town, 

* Gill's Niu-ku, Bower's Nougen. Gill calls the mountain Ch'a-Shu Shan or 
Ch'a-Keu Pass, altitude, 9,388 feet. 

tSee Hue, op. cit., 11, 502; T. T. Cooper, op. cii,, 245, et seq. Gill, op. cit., 
II, 183, et seq. Bonvalot, o/>. aV., 440. Bower, o/, aV., 85. Rep.on Explor. 
by A K , 69, etc., etc. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 345 

including the hamlets and the two or three little gombas in its 
immediate vicinity, may therefore be about 3,000.* 

A Chinese quartermaster {Liang-t'ai) and a captain represent 
the Chinese government here, and the native authorities consist of 
a first and second Deba, known in Chinese as Cheng T'u-ssu and 
Fu T'u-ssu. The Chinese tell me that there is hardly any trade 
here, and there are only two small Chinese firms doing business 
in the town. The lamas do what trading there is and lend 
money to the Chinese, who are but their agents. 

The climate of the Bat'ang valley is very mild, and wheat, 
millet, buckwheat, string beans, peas, squashes, cucumbers, pep- 
pers, cabbages, onions, peaches, pears, apricots, grapes, and 
watermelons (the latter known by its Chinese name of kua-kua), 
thrive here.f It is now the peach season, and quantities of small 
but tolerably sweet fruit were brought us. The butter sold here 
is very nice, I bought a quantity from a Mohammedan butcher; 
it was put up in little oblong prints and wrapped in poplar leaves. 
The rolls of bread are also delicious, but the meat is very poor, 
most of it yak flesh. 

I had to go and see the Liang-t'ai, Wang by name, as my 
money was exhausted and 1 thought he might lend me some on a 
check payable to his order at Ta-chien-lu by Mgr. Biet. I put on 
my foreign clothes for the first time since last November, and the 
change was most delightful, for before dressing I managed to get 
a tubbing, and I actually felt clean, a nearly forgotten sensation. 
The Liang-t'ai was not over polite and said he had no money; I 
told him I would have to stay here until 1 could get money from 
Ta-chien-lu if he would not assist me, and I asked him to make 
inquiries at the lamasery if some one would not let me have 50 
taels. All lamaseries are engaged in money lending; the question 
is, will they lend to a foreigner.? I doubt it. The soldiers tell me 
the Liang-t'ai is a blackguard and treats them all very badly. I 
fancy this is true. I have been hearing of him ever since I came 
on to the highroad; he is the man who pays the soldiers in tea, 

* A K (Kishen Singh) says that there are about two thousand houses, 

including fifty shops, at Bat'ang. Report on Explor., 69. Gill, op. cit., II, 189, 
says: " At Bat'ang, where there are only three hundred families, the lamasery con- 
tains thirteen hundred lamas." On Bat'ang and its history sttjourn. Roy. Asiat. 
Soc, n. s. XXIII, 46, 124, 249, 260 and 272. 

fOn the climate of Bat'ang, see Desgodins, op. cit., 469. 



346 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

fixing its value at twice what it is worth here, and dividing the 
profits of his rascality with the Commissary General at Ta-chien-lu. 

The Liang-t'ai said he would let me know to-morrow if he 
could get the money. I don't exactly know what I will do if he 
does not get me any; we have two rupees between us and a few 
coral beads and other odds and ends of no great value, some of 
which we might sell, but I fear that as people know I am in a 
tight place, no one will buy any thing from me. 

This place appears to me dull and devoid of interest; if I had 
some money in my purse it might look brighter and more inter- 
esting. 

September 77. — The Bat'angites are very much Chinesefied and 
have lost many of the pleasing traits I noticed in the wilder tribes 
of the west. On the whole, Chinese influence in Tibet has been 
distinctly deleterious, for while China has introduced among this 
people a few of the arts and conveniences of its higher civiliza- 
tion, it has debased them morally. Here, and along the highroad 
generally, the free, open demeanor so noticeable in Jyade and 
among the Panak'a and K'amba, has given place to the cringing, 
servile Chinese forms of politeness and duplicity. The Head 
Deba, for example, is a thorough Chinese,* even in dress, speak- 
ing Chinese with a broad Ssu-ch'uanese accent, and smoking all 
day long a water-pipe. The filth of the streets is quite Chinese, 
but the laziness of the people is not an importation from foreign 
parts. The men are Tibetans in dress, except that they wear their 
hair h la Chinoise. They are tall (five feet ten and over) and 
many of them corpulent. The dress of the women is like that of 
Bam-ding, previously referred to, with the exception that all wear 
aprons of narrow striped pulo or Pomii stuff. These are also 
worn at Lh'asa and over most of Tibet, except among the Drupa, 
where the ch'uba is the only garment of both sexes. The women 
are quite as much beasts of burden here as in other parts of the 
country, and their morals are not any better. The men do not 
usually carry the long sword common among Tibetans; most 

* Gill, op. cit., II, 196, says that "the first native chief of Bat'ang is of Chinese 
extraction, but as his family came from Yiin-Nan ten generations since, he may fairly 
be considered as a native of the soil. * * * His elder brother is the second chief." 
Gill's chief has now retired, and his son is first chief. The second chief is the same 
one Gill knew. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 347 

of them have only a Chinese knife and chopsticl<s, though a few 
carry a short dirk of Shigatse make and of decidedly Indian pattern. 

Barley and walnuts are used here in lieu of subsidiary coinage. 
1 bought a few bushels of the former to exchange for vegetables, 
salt, etc. Some scaleless fish, caught in the Ba-chung ch'u and 
about eighteen inches long, were brought to me, but 1 don't care 
for fish in this country, they eat too many corpses. 

The Liang-t'ai has sent me word that he can do nothing for 
me, the lamas will not lend any money, and he has none, his 
military funds {ping-hsia7ig) have not arrived and he has no 
money here of his own. It is very vexatious but not desperate, 
for I can always travel as Chinese officials do, live on the people 
and give no presents. I saw him later in the day; he said he 
would give me ula and all I required and that I had no need for 
money. I told him that we foreigners would be ashamed to 
travel as he and the like of him did and not pay for what we got, 
but he did not appreciate these honorable sentiments and his 
reply implied that he thought me a fool. 

I hear a great deal here about Gill, Mesny, Szechenyi and the 
other foreigners who have been through here. On the wall of 
the kung-kuan I found the signatures of all of them, from Szechnyi 
down to Bower; each with a patriotic motto under his name. 
The Deba spoke to me a great deal of Chi Wei-li (Gill) and Mei- 
Ssu-ni (Mesny) and of the Ching Wang (Prince d'Orleans); the 
two first he seemed to remember with great pleasure. Many of 
the soldiers, and not a few of the Tibetans, asked me about the 
Fathers of Ta-chien-lu and regretted that they had been forced to 
leave this country. 

September 18. — I had a very lively interview with the Liang-t'ai; 
he was extremely rude, forgot all his official manners, yelled and 
gesticulated like a mad man, and behaved like a fool generally. 
I said I would report him totheTsung-li Ya-men, which, of course, 
I will not do, as I have no one at Peking to look after my interests. 
Having told him what I thought of him, I got up, and without a 
word of salutation walked out. It was very disagreeable; nearly 
every Chinese in town was crowded around the door of the room 
in which we were squabbling, and heard every word of our 
altercation. 



348 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

The head Deba came to see me and wanted to buy my revolver. 
I asked him thirty taels, but he would only give ten and I refused to 
part with it. Knowing that I was in need of money he tried to 
make some good bargains, but the end of it all was that 1 would 
not sell him any thing. The Hsien-sheng sold the little remaining 
musk we had for twenty rupees, and we will be able to get along 
some way or other till Lit'ang is reached, where the Pa-tsung is 
an old acquaintance of '89 (he was then at Dawo), and will pos- 
sibly help me on to Ta-chien-lu. 

The Deba brought with him his collection of watches, of which 
he had between twenty and thirty of every make and metal, and 
wanted me to repair a dozen or so of them. The last addition to 
his collection was a "railway watch," which he said had been 
obtained from a British soldier in Sikkim last year and had been 
sold to him in Lh'asa. 

1 got the ula ordered for to-morrow; the head of the transporta- 
tion service, a relative of the Deba's and a very obliging fellow, 
has promised me first rate ponies. It is a " long ula " and will 
go as far as Lamaya, which is the frontier post of Bat'ang to the 
east. I hear that there is a big bobbery at Lit'ang, and that the 
road between here and Nyach'uk'a is practically closed to trade; 
all the tea for Central Tibet is going by way of Kanze to Derge 
and Ch'amdo. This explains in a degree the bad times at Bat'ang. 

September ip. — We had a violent thunder storm during the 
night, the first we have had for some days. The ula arrived 
early and 1 was pleased to see that all the mules were good strong 
ones and that we would be able to make good time. We left at 
nine o'clock and struck up the valley of the Gun ch'u, which, 
coming down from the Taso pass, empties into the Ba-ch'ung ch'u 
at Bat'ang, where it is spanned by a good bridge. 

The lower course of the Gun ch'u as far as Hsiao pa-ch'ung is 
through a rocky gorge, but above that point until one reaches the 
timber-line, the mountains on either side of the narrow valley are 
covered with pine, birch, oak and juniper trees and dense under- 
growth. From the branches of the holly-leaved evergreen oaks or 
chi7ig k'ang, hang long, thread-like moss of sea green or orange 
color.* 

* Usnea barbata. This oak tree does not grow in this valley at a higher altitude 
than P'ongdramo, 12,632 feet. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 349 

About one-quarter of a mile from Bat'ang we passed a little 
gomba at the mouth of the Gun ch'u valley. A little farther on 
we came to the Hot springs (7>'a ch'u-k'a) where there are a 
couple of low stone walls built around the springs. The springs 
are now nearly dry, and the reservoir over each one is not more 
than three or four feet square, not big enough to take much of a 
bath in. The people come here at certain seasons of the year 
(September I believe) to bathe, when they picnic by the river side 
and amuse themselves with singing, dancing and bathing; this is 
their one annual bath. 

P'ongdramo (Chinese Peng-cha-mu) is a filthy hamlet with a 
kung-kuan, where live five or six Chinese soldiers who attend to 
the ula. This kung-kuan is known as a Han-Man kung-kuan or 
a "Chinese-Tibetan post-station ;" government employes of both 
nationalities can stop in it. It is the second stage from Bat'ang, 
the first being at Hsiao pa-ch'ung. 

According to Chinese itineraries P'ongdramo is 90 /z from Bat'ang, 
but I only made it sixteen miles from that place. The Chinese gov- 
ernment magnifies the distances along these remote and difficult 
post roads so that it appears to the home government that the cou- 
riers cover enormous distances in a very short time. In the kung- 
kuan here (at P'ongdramo) was posted a notice to government 
couriers issued by the Pmg P'u (War Office) of Peking. 1 take the 
following from it: "The War OfiTice fixes the distance from Ta- 
chien-lu toNyach'uk'a (Ho-k'ou or Chung-tu) at 330 //,and the time 
allowed couriers to ride this is limited to twenty-four hours. 
From Nyach'uk'a to Li-t'ang the distance is 320 li, and couriers 
are allowed twenty-four hours to make it in. From Lit'ang to 
Bat'ang the distance is 480 li, and thirty-six hours is the time 
allowed. From Bat'ang to Lh'amdun is 220 li, to be ridden in 
sixteen hours. The penalty for being four hours late is ten blows 
with the heavy bamboo, for being six hours late, twenty blows, 
and for any longer delay, fifty blows. It is furthermore expressly 
forbidden to remit these punishments, they must be inflicted in 
every case." 

Chinese itineraries agree with this order; they make the distance 
between Ta-chien-lu and Bat'ang about 1,200 li, but Captain Gill 
and most other European travelers who have gone over this road 
say it is about two hundred and twenty-five miles. In other 



350 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

words, the Chinese count 5 li to the mile when in mountainous 
country, whereas they only count three to the same distance when 
in flat country. The // is, therefore, in practice more a measure 
of time than of distance, a fact to which Baber and other travelers 
have, by the way, already referred. 

At Bat'ang and at the various hamlets this side of it I noticed 
that birch bark cups and pails are largely used; they are made in 
the same way as those used in the Kuei-te country. 

The Hsien-sheng told me that the holly oak is found in the 
Han-chung Fu country;* the acorns are collected and sent to 
Hsi-ning Fu and other localities in Kan-su where they are used as 
a dye, giving the dark brown color to the felt hats worn in those 
parts. 

September 20. — A few miles above P'ongdramo we reached the 
timber-line, and thence as far as the summit of the Dasho pass, 
the trail was over a mass of granite boulders with here and there 
a little patch of short grass. In the hollow near the summit of 
the pass are two small tarns. There was a little snow on the 
west side of the peaks around the pass, and on the east side a 
slightly larger quantity. 

The descent to the hamlet of Dasho was steep, and the view 
from the lower part of the valley, at the mouth of which stands 
this unprepossessing place, very picturesque. Before us rose steep 
rocky peaks covered with snow, and on the sides of the valley 
down which we were traveling were dark pine trees, with here 
and there a birch or some other deciduous tree in its autumn foli- 
age of yellow or red. 

There are three or four houses at Dasho (Ta-sot'ang the Chinese 
call it), one of which is a kung-kuan, filthier even than its neigh- 
bor at P'ongdramo. The mud was so deep in the courtyard that 
we could hardly reach the door. We only stopped here to change 
our escort and then rode on, as Zamba fang was still a long way 
off, and a high mountain separated us from that place. 

The women at Dasho wear a form of head-ornament resembling 
somewhat that adopted in the Horba country. It consists of a 
discoidal piece of amber, about two and one-half inches in diam- 
eter, with a coral bead in the center. One of these ornaments is 
worn on either side of the head, and the hair is arranged in three 

* In northeast Shen-hsi. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 351 

plaits hanging down behind, and on these are fastened a quantity 
of silver plaques and bits of turquoise. The general effect is 
very ugly. 

A good-sized rivulet, the Pa-lung-ta of the Chinese (and Ba- 
rong ta of the Tibetans),* flows down the Dasho valley and is 
crossed by a bridge a mile or so below the hamlet. From a little 
way beyond this point the Ba-rong ta valley, which is at least a 
quarter of a mile wide in places, is well timbered, but we only 
saw one or two houses in it. There is a trail which goes down 
this valley to the warm districts to the south (Ba-rong or Rongwa 
of Ba), but our road left the river after a few miles, and by a 
steep gorge (it is the Sung-Iin k'ou of the Chinese) covered with 
fine trees, we made our way first to the top of the Mang la, and 
thence to the summit of the Rateu la (Ta shan or Tsan-pa shan 
of the Chinese). f From here we descended over a bare country, 
with an occasional black tent in some nook in the hills, to Rateu 
or Lit'ang Zamba, a small post-station which marks the boundary 
between Bat'ang and Lit'ang. 

Rateu is a miserably dirty hole, where the kung-kuan is as big 
as a chicken-house and as filthy as a pig-sty. To add to the dirt 
of the place, it was sleeting when we arrived, and we dismounted 
before the door of the kung-kuan in a foot of liquid mud. To 
still more increase our discomfort, the ula drivers let the mule car- 
rying our pots, pans and provisions, stray away in the dark, so 
we had nothing but a couple of eggs and some tea for supper. 

Some twenty black tents are scattered about on the foothills of 
the Bamt'ang shan, J whose beautiful snow-clad peaks close our 
view to the north. Down the valley flows the Ni ch'u (Gill's Nen 
ch'u), and above and below this place the mountain sides are 
covered with dense pine woods. It is too cold here to raise any- 
thing save a few turnips; barley is brought from Bat'ang, and the 
soldiers trade their tea with the Drupa for the few products they 
can supply, but even the Drupa only stay here for three months 
of the year; they change their camping grounds four times 
annually. 

* Bower calls it Tasu-chu river. 

t Gill calls this pass (he only mentions one) Rung-Se-La. Bower calls it Lathok 
La. 

X Gill calls this splendid snowpeak Mt. Kung-Rh. 



352 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

September 21. — We have been obliged to pass a day at Rateu 
while the ula drivers went in search of the lost mule. All the 
people hereabout turned out to help them, and it was brought back 
in the afternoon minus a leather water jar, a tea churn, and a few 
other articles of no great value and all easily replaced. The poor 
boy who was in charge of this mule was terribly frightened at 
losing it; he said if it was not found he could never return to 
Bat'ang, where the Deba would have him flogged, put in the 
cangue, and burnt with blazing pitch-pine chips — the usual 
punishment for such an offense. He and the soldiers told me that 
the head Deba (Ying kuan the Chinese call him) is a terrible tyrant. 
He exercises all the droits du seigneur over the women folks among 
his subjects, and it is. also said that he is in the habit, when dis- 
mounting from his horse, of using one of his kneeling subjects 
instead of a stepping stone. The Head Deba is not as wealthy as 
his uncle, the Second Deba (Erh Ying-kuan), though he owns the 
famous salt mines, or tsak'a, south of Bat'ang, known to us by 
the name of Yerkalo.* He has also an income of a thousand taels or 
so derived from other sources. 

I asked a very bright Chinese soldier who has come with me 
from Bat'ang why it was that all Chinese soldiers in Tibet were 
unarmed. "We are here," he replied, "to talk reason (/z) to 
the Man-chia, not to overawe them by force of arms. We are 
few and they are many. If they should rise up against us and 
put any of us to death, we would not resist, but would warn them, 
saying, we are the great Emperor's soldiers, beware of what you 
do. He will surely punish you." There is truth in what this 
poorly paid and badly cheated soldier said about their role in 
Tibet, but his faith in the Emperor is, 1 fear me, ill-placed; he 
would probably not trouble himself about the killing of a few 
poor devils in a remote corner of his vast empire. 

I heard also, to my great satisfaction, that there are now two 
French missionaries at the Ts'ak'a (Yerkalo), an old one and a 
young one. This is most pleasing news; it shows the good 
fathers have at last got another footing in their old station, from 
which they had been so brutally driven a few years ago, 

* The French missionaries established a station at Yerkalo in 1871. See Desgodins, 
op. cit., 156. 




Village of Ra-nang iLamaya) in Lit'ang. 




Village of Lit'ang Golo (Hsi Olo) in Lit'ang. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 353 

Septeynber 22. — Crossing the bridge over the Ni ch'u, we fol- 
lowed the left bank of the river to Niida (Erh-lang-wan in Chi- 
nese), a little post station with two or three Tibetan cabins 
around ;t. 

The country between Rateu and Nada is uncultivated and the 
mountain sides covered with trees, mostly pines. Now and then 
we caught a glimpse of beautiful snow-covered mountains to the 
north, one of which must be at least nineteen thousand feet 
high.* 

A mile or so before reaching Nada we passed near a high tower 
built of dry stones. It stands on a rock overhanging the stream, 
and is similar in shape to those described by Gill, as noticed near 
Bakolo, to the east of Nyach'uk'a.f It is about fifty feet high 
and in a fairly good state of preservation. No one could tell me 
any thing about it, either its use or its origin. 

The women at Nada have a peculiar way of dressing their hair, 
it hangs down in little plaits, and a small lock, taken from the 
right side of the part, hangs down over the nose and reaches to 
the mouth. On their hair and just above the ears they wear two 
disks of silver, four or five inches in diameter, one on either side 
of the head. 

About four miles below Nada, from which place, by the way, 
we got a beautiful view of the snow-covered mountains to the 
north, and of the pine forests surrounding their base, we began to 
notice fields of barley and patches of turnips. At this point we 
left the Ni ch'u valley, which bends southward, and having crossed 
three low ranges of hills trending southward, we descended by a 
narrow gorge to Ranang % (La-ma-ya of the Chinese), where we 
stopped in a fairly good Tibetan post station. 

We had to change the ula here, but the headman seemed 
very unwilling to supply any in view of the unsettled state of the 
country. He said that Lit'ang was at war with Chung-hsi, that 
many men had already been killed (probably two or three are to 
be understood by "many"), and that the road to Lit'ang, unsafe 

*This peak, called Nen-da by Gill, is apparently the center of the massif, 
of which Gill's Kung-Rh forms the western extremity and his Gombo Kung-ka the 
eastern. He makes Mt. Nen-da to be 20,500 feet high. 

fGill, op. cit., II, 136. See under date of September 30. 

\ Bower's Ramo. 



354 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

at all times on account of Chakba, was now extremely dangerous 
(we will probably not meet a living soul on it). All the people, 
with all their horses and a vast number of yaks were at Lit'ang, 
and he could not get ula ponies for me. 1 told him to do his best 
and that I felt sure we could get off to-morrow. 

There are quite a number of hamlets in this valley ; some barley is 
raised and birch trees are quite numerous on the mountain sides. 
I also notice a few poplars in some of the hamlets. The birch 
bark is used here, as elsewhere in Tibet, to make household uten- 
sils — cups and pails. 1 have much difficulty in reconciling the 
names of places along this road, as given by Capt. Gill, with 
those used by the natives. Many of the names used by Gill are 
quite unknown to all those I question on the subject. The Chi- 
nese authors of the Wei Tsa^ig fu chih give a tolerably accurate 
description of this road, but fall into some curious mistakes, say- 
ing, for example, "down a valley," where one would expect 
" up," and vice versd.^ 

September 2j. — We were detained at Ranang until 4 p. m. ; the 
headmen of all the surrounding villages having assembled here in 
conclave declared they had neither men nor beasts for me, that all 
were at Lit'ang with the army. Finally some were found and we 
made a start, though we could only go a few miles. 

We ascended a densely wooded valley (pines, junipers, birch, 
and willow trees) to a hamlet of two or three cabins, called Latsa 
(Lart'angin Chinese), about three hundred feet below the timber- 
line on the west side of the Gara la (or lak'a). A few turnips 
are grown here. 

We camped on a bit of green sward near the kung-kuan, as the 
latter was too filthy for human beings to put up in. The two 
Chinese soldiers stationed here and some of the Tibetans begged 
me to come into the kung-kuan, as brigands and thieves were 
very bold and numerous in this place, but we all preferred facing 
any danger rather than the dirt in the dmgy post station. 

The filth we find in the Tibetan villages ever since entering 
Bat'ang territory is extraordinary, never, no not even in China, have 
I seen such dirty places. The mud is knee deep in all of them, 

* Sttjourn. Roy. Asiat. Soc, n. s. XXIII, 44. A similar error occurs on p. 51 
(third line from bottom). 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 355 

and swine, goats, chickens, dogs and cats all contribute to make 
the lanes and courtyards too vile smelling for even my well- 
seasoned nostrils. Yaks, djo, and sheep are not numerous in this 
part of Tibet, ponies and mules do most of the work, and meat 
is but little eaten, at least at this time of the year. 

In the Lit'ang district the pronunciation approaches that of 
Lh'asa, and is, consequently, much more readily understood by 
us than that of Bat'ang, which we found nearly incomprehensible. 
To add to our trouble each locality has, of course, a large number 
of local idioms, with which time alone can make one acquainted. 



September 24.. — Last night passed peaceably, though we slept 
with one eye open fearing lest the much talked of robbers might 
visit us. We left very early, so as to be able to reach Lit'ang 
before dark. 

The road ascended rapidly, and soon we reached the head of the 
Latsa valley and entered a higher one, covered with rolled granite 
rocks. It trended westward and was bordered to the east by a 
high range of rocky mountains, over which the road to Lit'ang 
led, and which is known to the Chinese as the Huang-t'u kang, 
and to Tibetans as Gara lak'a or Gara pen sum. This depression 
between the Latsa valley and the Huang-t'u kang has evidently 
been the bed of a glacier, and there are still several ponds in it. 
One called the " dry lakelet " (Kan hai-tzu by the Chinese) has a 
small stone cabin on its bank. This refuge-house is known to the 
natives as Tsung-ta. The stream flowing by Ranang has its 
sources in this valley. 

The descent from the Gara lak'a to the post station of Jambut'ong 
(T'ou fang in Chinese) is short and very gradual, the ground 
covered with rocks and in a few spots with brush or grass. 
Jambut'ong is a dirty post station with two houses, in one of 
which two Chinese soldiers are stationed. There were some 
hundred Tibetans camped here, returning from Lit'ang, and driving 
home a herd of yaks and five hundred or six hundred sheep 
captured from the Chung-hsi people. 

A couple of miles beyond Jambut'ong we came to the brow of 
a hill, known to the Chinese as A-la-po-sang shan, at the foot of 
which stretches the plain of Lit'ang, and in a nook in the hills on 
the north side of this broad valley we saw the town of Lit'ang, 



356 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

the golden spires of its Ciiamba ch'u-k'or-ling temple shining in 
the sunlight. 

After a couple of miles of continuous and rather rapid descent, 
we came to a bridge over the Li ch'u, where there is also an ula 
station. This point is called Che zangka, possibly a corrupt form 
of Ch'u zamba, " river bridge"; it is known to the Chinese as 
Ta ch'iao, or "the big bridge." 

Numerous black tents were seen scattered over the broad Lit'ang 
valley, and near each one herds of yaks and large flocks of sheep 
were grazing. The bridge over the Li ch'u had been washed 
away and two rickety and very springy poles, lashed to the but- 
tresses, were all we had to walk on. The ponies and mules had 
to swim the river, and the luggage was carried across by the 
ula drivers on their backs. 

We reached the town at 4.30 p. m. In the plain by the river 
side were camped about 5,000 men, their white cotton tents 
pitched in a circle inside of which the horses were picketed. 
Near by a herd of yaks and a very large flock of sheep, captured 
from the Chung-hsi people, were grazing under an escort of 
mounted men. I was told that in these inter-tribal wars the 
plunder made on the enemy is not divided among the victors, 
each man carries off what he himself has captured. Two days 
ago there was a fight in which two Lit'angites and three Chung- 
hsiites were killed, and another battle is anticipated in the near future. 

Lit'ang stands on a hillside; on the plain at the foot of the hill 
are two high white-washed buildings, one the residence of the 
Head Deba, the other that of his brother, the Second Deba, who 
is a lama.* The town is much larger than Bat'ang, but the 
complete absence of trees makes it look very desolate. The 
population comprises about three hundred and fifty families and 
between two thousand and three thousand lamas, also one hun- 
dred and fifty Chinese.! A wall, built by the Chinese 1 believe, 

*The first Deba's name is Derang jyamts'o, the second is Kuntun dewi (?). The 
chief lama official is the Drebung lama Pents'o. On Lit'ang and its history, see 
Journ. Roy. Asiat. Soc, n. s. XXlll, 40, 124, 248 and 271. 

t A K says it is " a small city, containing but two thousand five hundred 

houses" — Report, etc., 67. Gill, op. cit., li, 189, says it has one thousand families 
and three thousand lamas. Probably the whole Lit'ang country has between one 
thousand five hundred and two thousand five hundred families, exclusive of lamas. 
Conf p. 358. Ch'en Teng-lung in his Lit'ang chih liieh (1810) says (p. 2) 
that there are five thousand three hundred and twenty families and three thousand 
two hundred and seventy lamas in the Lit'ang district. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 357 

in the eighteenth century, once inclosed the town, but is now in 
ruins; on a commanding point on the east side of the town 
stands a dilapidated Kuan-ti temple. 

We had proposed stopping in a Chinese inn, of which the 
Chinese appeared to be quite proud, but the Liang-t'ai, fearing lest 
the turbulent and intoxicated soldiery might molest me there, 
asked me to come to his Ya-men, where he gave me two very 
small rooms and a kitchen. 



September 23. — My first occupation to-day was to try and get 
enough money to take me to Ta-chien-lu. 1 fortunately found a 
Lao-shan trader, whom I had met in 1889, and he lent me forty- 
five rupees to be paid to his partner at Ta-chien-lu. 

The Hsien-sheng and 1 dined with the Liang-t'ai and had a 
very good dinner of sixteen courses. This official is a very stupid 
fellow who has bought the office he now holds. He has, how- 
ever, a very bright Ssu-yeh (a prompter, private secretary, or 
whatever one chooses to call this office), who talks for him, 
writes his dispatches, manages all his business, and keeps him in 
good humor. 

1 heard that although the lamas do not allow the people to mine 
gold in the immediate vicinity of Lit'ang, a good deal of rough 
placer mining is carried on in remote localities. All the gold is 
brought here and sold for from fifteen to sixteen times its weight 
in silver. The Liang-ta'i said that about two thousand ounces of 
gold are collected annually; most of it is bought by the lamas, 
who send it to Ta-chien-lu. A fair day's earning for a gold 
washer is five/<?« * a day. 

The lamas here are said to be very wealthy, and most of the 
twenty or thirty firms of Chinese traders of this place get their 
funds from them. Besides the tea trade, a large number of sheep 
(about ten thousand a year) are driven to Ta-chien-lu, and, besides 
supplying that town, help provide the Ch'eng-tu market, which 
city gets also much of its mutton from Sung-pan T'ing. 

The people here use large quantities of gold ornaments. The 
women wear their hair hanging down in one large plait, and on 

*■ kfen is the tenth part of a Hang or ounce. ?\wt/en of gold would be worth 
about 75 tael cents in silver, or 77 cents of our currency. 



358 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

either side of their heads are large disks of embossed silver or 
gold, some of them ten inches in diameter.* 

Though Lit'ang is a bare, cold place, and at a considerable alti- 
tude above sea level, and the Tibetans do not attempt to raise even 
barley here, sorne of the Chinese manage to grow a few vegetables, 
such as turnips, o-sung, greens, etc., but most of their supplies 
come from Nyach'uk'a or Bat'ang; even fire-wood is brought here 
from a day's journey to the south. 

Snow falls at Lit'ang from the ninth moon to the sixth, inclu- 
sively (October to June), and rains are frequent during the months 
when it does not snow. 

The Liang-t'ai asked the Deba to supply me with ula as soon 
as possible, but we learned that none could be ready before the 
day after to-morrow. As we will double at least one stage 
between here and Ta-chien-lu, I will be able to get there in five 
days, so I can be patient under this contretemps. 

September 26. — To-day has passed talking with Chinese and 
Tibetans, asking a few questions and answering innumerable 
ones. All those with whom I have talked agree that the lay 
population of the town is between three hundred and three hundred 
and fifty families, and that there are several thousand families of 
Drupa in the Province. This I can readily believe from the pres- 
ence here of the large force camped below the town. Several 
districts, 1 am assured, are not represented in the army now here. 

There are in Lit'ang blacksmiths, silversmiths and coppersmiths, 
also a few workers in leather and saddlemakers, but none of the 
work I have seen is of a high order, all is very inferior to that of 
Derge. Though all the houses are of the Tibetan type {i. e., two- 
storied), most of them have roofs covered with narrow slabs of 
wood, about three feet long, on which are laid sods of grass to 
hold them down. 

* The national headdress of Tibet is that worn by the Panaka, K'ambaandinjyade, 
and previously referred to. We find it first mentioned in Friar Odoric's Travels (H. 
Yule, Cathay and the Way Thither, 1, 150). Athanasius Kircher (in Nieuhoff, 
Embassy from the East India Company to China, p. 39 and 44) shows that 
the headdresses of the eastern Tibetan women were the same in the 17th century as 
at present. His " Kingdom of Coin " is, 1 take it, K'amdo. The figures on page 
39 of Nieuhoff s work are those of Koko-nor Tibetans. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 359 

The incarnate Buddha, or Truku, of Lit'ang comes from Lh'asa, 
and the Abbot or K'anpo, who rules the great lamasery of 
Chamba-ch'u-k'or-ling, is also sent here from the same place and 
for a term of three years. The notes on Lit'ang in my translations, 
published in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,* are still 
true at the present day, though the Chinese works from which 
they are taken were written over a century ago. One must not 
look for change or progress in this country. 

September 27. — We left at 8 A. M. in company with one of the 
headmen of the Chala Jyabo (Ming-cheng-ssu) of Ta-chien-lu, 
who is returning from a mission to the Deba's wife, the daughter 
of his king. Though a Tibetan, he speaks Chinese like a native, 
and is a valuable addition to our party, especially as he has prom- 
ised to manage things for us from Nyach'uk'a to our destination, 
as from that point to Ta-chien-lu all the country belongs to his 
master. 

The road led over low hills to the top of the Dzo-mo la, which 
the Chinese call "the burning-hill " (Huo shao-po), why, 1 cannot 
conceive, as I saw no sign of volcanic action anywhere, either 
here or elsewhere in the vicinity; possibly the name means noth- 
ing more than "the hill (above) the Huo (ch'u)." 

A short descent brought us to Yaokatse on the Hor ch'u, Huo 
chu in Chinese, where there are ruins of a former post station. 
Here we met about a hundred men going to join the army at 
Lit'ang, all of them well armed and mounted on fine large horses, 
for which this section of country is justly celebrated. We fol- 
lowed the right bank of the river as far as Hor ch'uk'a, passing 
on the way numerous gold washings, in fact, all the gravel beds in 
and along the river have been washed for gold. The gravel is 
rather coarse sandstone and white quartz. 

Hor ch'uk'a consists of three or four houses, one a kung-kuan, 
where live two soldiers, and just beyond the hamlet is a rather 
dilapidated Wen Hou temple. The houses are of stone, but only 
a story high. At this point we left the Hor ch'u and ascended a 
lateral valley which brought us by an easy ascent to the summit 
of the Wango la (Gill's Wang-gi la). 

We then entered a valley in which in less than three miles we 
passed fifty-seven black tents. Probably several thousand yaks 

*New series, XXIII, and frequently referred to in the preceding notes. 



360 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

were grazing here, but I was surprised to see very few sheep. 
Passing out of this cattleman's paradise, at a point where it 
takes a southerly bend, we crossed another low range of moun- 
tains by the Ku la, and entered a rocky, narrow gorge, very appro- 
priately called Loan-shih chiao, or "pit of boulders," the lower 
part of which is thickly covered with pines and oaks. We pulled 
up tor the night at the little post station of Tsa-ma-ra dong (Tsan- 
ma-la-tung in Chinese), situated at its mouth, having made, with- 
out riding very hard, two stages in one day. 

This little place, lost in the mountains, is one of the most pic- 
turesque spots we have seen. The steep hills around it are 
covered with trees, now in their many colored autumn foliage, a 
brook dashes down the gorge over a bed of boulders, and around 
the three little log houses composing the hamlet are fields of oats 
and vegetables. Three Chinese soldiers and their families inhabit 
the place; they received us with great kindness and made us as 
comfortable as they could. Here for the first time we ate potatoes 
raised in the valley, and the soldiers gave us also greens, a fowl 
and some eggs. The pack animals only arrived late in the night; 
the men had had a hard time getting them down the Loan-shih 
chiao in the dark; in fact, it was a wonder they got here at all, as 
this part of the road is very bad, even in daylight. 

September 28. — I was awaked by the cries of silver pheasants 
on the hillside behind the house. The sun was shining brightly 
and the little valley looked most beautiful. I could have stayed 
for hours looking at the oaks, with their dark, glistening leaves, 
the moss-covered pines, the yellow-leaved birches and the high 
mountains rising all around, their summits a serrated line of red- 
dish rocks; but we had a long ride before us, and so we rolled 
up our blankets and got off as soon as we had swallowed our tea 
and eaten a few handfuls of tsamba — our usual morning meal. 

A mile or so below the station we turned up a valley leading 
northeast and down which flowed a little brook. All the gravel 
along its banks and on the lower slopes of the Zuunda la (Gill's 
Tang Gola), which begins here, has been worked over by gold 
washers. We passed two camps of some ten or twelve persons 
each, both men and women, busy digging and washing the 
gravel. Their method of mining was simple in the extreme; the 
gravel was shoveled into a wooden trough, about four feet long 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 361 

and six or eight inches broad at the lower end; through it a little 
stream of water was allowed to flow. Across the lower end of 
the trough was stretched a thick woollen rag through which the 
water escaped. The mud and gravel in the trough were stirred up 
with a stick and gently removed with the hand, while the particles 
of gold set free were caught in the rag. Every now and then the 
rag was removed, the gold collected, and put in a yak horn snuff 
bottle. The cabins of the gold workers were beside the diggings ; 
they were tent-shaped and covered over with long strips of pine 
bark. 

The descent from the Zuunda la was short but steep; at the 
base is the village of Lit'ang Golo (Hsi Olo of the Chinese) in a 
broad, fertile, well-cultivated valley, dotted over with little ham- 
lets. Wheat, barley, potatoes, turnips, greens, etc., are cul- 
tivated here, and pigs and chickens are as plentiful as in a Chinese 
village. All the women we have met in the Lit'ang country wear 
the same horribly ugly lock of hair hanging down over the nose, 
which we first noticed at Nada. It is a part of the national dress 
and a woman is considered to be a very brazen-faced character 
who does not wear it. Teuja, the dirty black paste with which 
most Tibetan women smear their faces, is not much used in Bat'- 
ang or even farther west, wherever there are Chinese, but the 
Drupa and the Central Tibetan women use it very generally. 

We followed dowri the Lit'ang Golo valley for a couple of miles 
and then ascended the steep Mo-lung gung (Po-lang-kung shan 
in Chinese), which rises above the timber line some two hundred 
or three hundred feet.* The ascent is very steep and over loose 
stones which makes climbing very disagreeable. Oaks, pines and 
birches cover the mountain sides, and a variety of rose bush, the 
skin of whose seed-vessels is eaten by the natives, is also very 
abundant here. This mountain is famous as producing that 
curious worm-plant known as the Shar-tsa gong-bu {tung-chu7ig 
hsia-ts'ao in Chinese), called by botanists Cordyceps sinensis. 

Very near the summit of the mountain is a post station with two 

* Gill makes this mountain to be over 15,000 feet. 1 think he is wrong as it only 
rises a few hundred feet above the timber line which 1 found here, as elsewhere in 
this latitude in Tibet, to be at about 13,500 feet. In fact while Gill's and my obser- 
vations for altitude at Bat'ang, Lit'ang and Ta-chien-lu agree closely, at all other 
points along this route his altitudes are greatly in excess of those I found for the 
same places. 



362 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

or three soldiers stationed in it. It is said that this spot is, or 
was, a famous lurking place for brigands. 

We descended into a little hollow on the farther side of the 
mountain, and stopped for the night at the foot of another pass, 
which we have to cross to-morrow, and where there is another 
post station, called Chien-tzu-wan in Chinese, and Laniba in Tibetan. 

At Laniba we met a party of Chinese soldiers, with their Tibetan 
wives and children, on their way back to their homes in Ssu-ch'uan, 
also a Salar from 1-ma-mu chuang, who had been on a trading trip 
to Lit'ang. He dealt in shagreen {sha-p'i), he said, and was now 
on his way to Ch'eng-tu. Among the soldiers was one man who 
had been at Shigatse for twenty -five years and who had only been 




HOE, Wooden Blade (Eastern Tibet). 

able after all these years to get together enough money to take 
him home. The Chinese government do not pay the traveling 
expenses of their soldiers who desire to retire from the army; that 
is one way of keeping men in the service. It is no easy matter 
for one of these poor soldiers to save up enough to pay for the 
journey from Lh'asa to Ta-chien-lu, as it costs from 20 to 25 taels 
to hire a yak from one place to the other, or rather to have a yak 
load carried that distance. These soldiers had left Shigatse in 
February, and thought they had not been so very long on the 
road; four months is the time usually employed by well equipped 
caravans, only using mules as pack-animals, to make the journey 
to China. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 363 

September 29. — Last night there was a heavy frost and this 
morning at seven o'clock the thermometer stood at +33° Fahren- 
heit. After crossing the Laniba pass we followed the valley on 
the east side. It is everywhere well wooded with holly-leaved 
oaks and pines, and in the lower portion with willow, maple, 
birch, poplar, apple, cherry and, I think, mulberry trees. We 
passed on the way several small hamlets, at one, called Ma-kai- 
chung, there is a small Chinese inn, and around this place and 
also lower down the valley we saw patches'of hemp and a few 
little fields of barley and wheat. 

We reached the Nya ch'u, the Ya-lung chiang of the Chinese, 
by noon. The river here makes a sharp bend from north-north- 
west to south, and on its left bank stands the town of Nya-ch'uk'a, 
known by the Chinese as Chung tu, "Middle ferry," or Ho-k'ou. 
Another little stream coming from the east and called the Orongshe 
ch'u (Hsiao ho of the Chinese) empties into the Nya ch'u here. 
On the bluff on the right bank of the river and facing Ho-k'ou is 
a small village, and the steep hillsides are everywhere cultivated 
in terraces, buckwheat being one of the principal crops. 

We made signs to the men in charge of the ferry boats (similar 
to the one used on the Dre ch'u below Bat'ang) to come over for 
us, and soon we heard a gong summoning the crew, and the big 
boat in a little while put off. It was rowed close along the left 
bank of the river till above the place where we were waiting for 
it, when it was steered out into the rushing, eddying river, and 
was soon swept over to our side. We embarked, we and our 
belongings, the ula not going any farther, and in a short time we 
reached the water-gate of the town. 

Natives cross the river in little skin coracles, a number of them 

were bobbing about on the stream ; the ferry-boat is reserved for 

government use and for Chinese travelers, the latter paying a 

small fare.* 

Ho-k'ou is a thoroughly Chinese place, the houses two-storied 

and similar to those of Ta-chien-lu. The male population is ex- 
clusively Chinese, the women half breeds. There are forty fami- 
lies living here, exclusive of a Sergeant (Wai-wei) and a few 
soldiers. It is the extreme western point of the Chala Jyabo's 
possessions, and is practically the frontier post of China, as no 

* In winter the river is crossed on a bridge of boats. See A K 's Report, 

66, also Bower, op. cit., 91. 



364 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

one is allowed to go beyond it without first showing a passport or 
permit from the Ta-chien-lu Chun-liang-fu. It is the lowest point 
we have come to in Tibet, being only a little over eight thousand 
feet above sea level. Barley, millet, buckwheat, maize, potatoes, 
cabbages, celery, peppers, onions, cucumbers and other vegetables 
are grown around and below the town. A variety of parroquet, 
with light green body and long light blue tail, is found here and 
taken in large numbers to Ssu-ch'uan. This same variety of bird 
is found, I am told, at Bat'ang. 

The west bank of the Nya ch'u, in front of Ho-k'ou and thence 
northward, belongs to the Nya-rong, a dependency of Lh'asa.* 

I was very comfortably installed in the home of one of our 
escort, a young soldier from Lit'ang, and the ula was promised 
for an early hour to-morrow. 

Most of the women of Ho-k'ou wear one large plaque of silver 
on the crown of their heads, though some add another worn on 
the forehead. The hair is done up in one large plait hanging 
down the back. Their dress is a long, loose, blue cotton gown, 
over which is another of the same length, but sleeveless; a col- 
ored belt is worn around the waist. The earrings are of the 
Bat'ang pattern. 

September so. — The ula was at the door before sunrise, and we 
were soon on the way again. The road led up the gorge of the 
Orongshe ch'u, crossing and recrossing the river which dashes 
wildly down, eddying around or tumbling over huge boulders 
which fill its bed. Pine, maple, birch and holly-oak trees grow in 
great profusion all the way to Bagolo, where the valley broadens 
out a little and some land is cultivated. 

Bagolo (Pa-kiao-lu in Chinese)! is a little post station beside 

* Perhaps better known by its Chinese name of Chan-tui. Shortly after my first 
visit to Tibet, this province revolted against its Lh'asan governor. After some 
desultory fighting the Deba was recalled, and a new one sent in his place when peace 
and Lh'asan rule were restored — until the new incumbent begins to squeeze the 
people beyond endurance. For the Chinese official account of these disturbances and 
the pacification of the country, see Peking Gazette, 29th July, 1891, and 24th 
February, 1892. 

t Gill says the Chinese name is Pa-kou lou or " The eight angled tower," referring 
to the peculiar shape of the watch tower standing here. This would be a very good 
name for the place, but I fancy the name is Tibetan, probably Ba golo. There is a 
Lit'ang golo and a Ma Nya golo. Golo, I believe, means "town, capital." Bower 
{op. cit., 91) was misinformed when told that a look-out was still kept in this tower. 



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JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 365 

which stands a very well preserved watch tower, similar to the 
one we passed near Nada. The people here told me that it had 
been built by a King of Tibet ( Tsang Wa7ig^ to guard the high- 
road at a time when a Chinese invasion was feared. They may 
refer to Latsang Khan, during whose reign (in 1719-1720) the 
great Chinese expedition and conquest of Tibet was undertaken. 

Between Bagolo and Orongshe* (Wo-lung-shih in Chinese), 
about eight miles farther up the valley, we passed occasional farm- 
houses, all of a half-Tibetan, half-Chinese type. The district 
chiefs residence was passed a few miles east of Bagolo; it is a 
finely built Tibetan house with tiled roof, the tiles made near Tung- 
olo by Chinese who came from Ta-chien-lu and built a kiln there. 

At Orongshe, where we stopped in a fairly good inn, there live 
nine families of Chinese, but no Tibetans. The place has a certain 
reputation in Tibet as producing the best maple-knot cups {puru). 
These knots are known locally as la siting, and in other sections of 
Tibet as'dzaya siting. The Chinese frequently, in fact usually, call 
these knots p'u-tao-ken mu, which, literally translated, means 
"vine root." These cups sell for from i to 15 or 20 taels, accord- 
ing to the fineness of the tracings in the wood. Though a little 
wheat, barley and vegetables are grown at Orongshe, the inhab- 
itants say it is a very poor place, and that they live solely on 
travelers. 

October i. — We left very early with the pleasing expectation of 
meeting an European before night, for I heard that my old friend, 
Father Soulie, is now living at Ma-Nya-ch'uk'a (Tungolo).t 
Though I have done a good deal of talking in the last nine months, 
it has been exclusively with Asiatics, and they have no conversa- 
tion, as we understand it, so I was wild for a talk. 

The valley above Orongshe is well wooded very nearly up to 
the summit of Kaji la, on which, by the way, we found a little 
snow. From its summit we saw to the east-northeast the Jara ri, 
around whose base 1 passed fn 1889, J when going to Ta-chien-lu, 
and to the east-southeast its mate, the Kungka ri; between the 
two rises the Chedo la, over which the road to Ta-chien-lu 
passes. 

* Bower's Uru Tonga, 
t Bower's Mayo golok. 
XStt Land of the Lamas, 26S. 



366 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

On the east side of Kaji la there is a plateau where we noticed 
a few black tents, and 1 was told that there is a little lamasery 
called Kaji gomba not far off, but we could not see it. 

Crossing this little plateau we descended rapidly to the Tungolo 
valley, only passing on the way a small farm house and the tile kiln 
referred to previously. This valley is quite a broad one for Tibet, 
and a number of lateral ones of about equal size open onto it 
above and below where we entered it. 

I found Pere Soulie living in a little room in a Tibetan house 
just outside the village. He was prepared for my visit; news had 
been received a few days previously that I was on my way to 
Ta-chien-lu. We sat and chatted for a couple of hours and I 
drank a bottle of wine, which the good fellow insisted on sharing 
with me, though he had but the one to use in case of sickness. 
He looked aged and worn, but was the same cheerful, pleasant 
companion 1 had found him in former years. 

At Tungolo is another old watch tower, but I could hear noth- 
ing of its history or original object. I left the village, which is 
at least half Chinese, by 2.15 p. m., and accompanied by Father 
Soulie, who insisted on escorting me a few miles on my way, we 
rode down the valley to a point where there is a little hamlet, 
called Watsema (Wa-ch'ieh in Chinese), beside which are the 
ruins of an old Chinese camp on a hill.* Here Father Soulie left 
me, and I turned up a lateral valley, broader even than the Tungolo 
one, and in which we noticed several more watch towers. We 
rode to Anya (A-niang-pa of the Chinese), where we lodged in 
the headman's house, a rather Chinesesy building, with a long line 
of prayer barrels around one side of the inner gallery overlooking 
the courtyard. 

1 find that the Tibetans along the highroad do not let themselves 
be as much imposed upon as regards supplying ula as 1 had 
supposed. A Wai-wei and three Chinese soldiers from Ch'amdo 
left Draya with us to go to Ta-chien-lu for money for the garrison. 
They had an ula order, but ever since passing Bat'ang they have 
had to hire horses, as the local authorities positively refused to 
give them ponies. They had, they said, no redress, and doubted 
even if they could get their expenses refunded by the Chinese 
authorities on their return to Ch'amdo. 

* Bower's Mana Rong. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 367 

October 2. — The ula was ready by daylight and we lost no time 
in getting off, for Ta-chien-lu was at the end of the day's march. 
About three miles above Anya we came to Nashe,* where we 
saw yet another of the old watch towers, the last one we met with. 
All these towers have doors in them, and holes in the walls in 
which rafters for floors must once have been set; they are loop- 
holed and a few have windows in them near the top, which is 
octagonal, while the lower portion is star shaped. 

Passing Nashe (Na-wa-lu in Chinese) we came to another little 
hamlet called Tiru (Ti-ju in Chinese), where there are three Chi- 
nese soldiers and a post station. Here we met some Chinese 
women on their way toLh'asa; they were wives of small officials 
whom we had passed a few days before. These women were 
riding disguised as men, for Chinese women are not allowed in 
the country, wearing big red feng-mao to hide their headdresses 
and faces, and their little feet stuffed in big velvet boots. At Tiru 
the ascent of the Chedo la begins; it is very gradual and not over 
two miles long, but it was bitterly cold, a strong southeast wind 
blowing over the snow with which the mountain was covered. 
The descent on the east side is also gradual, and were it not that 
the road has been paved with irregular blocks of granite, it would 
be very good traveling, as it is, it is a veritable loan-shih chiao, or 
" pit of boulders." 

The country from Tungolo to near the hamlet of Chedo, on the 
east side of the pass, is bare of trees or even shrubs, but at Chedo 
and farther down the valley of the Che ch'u there grows a consid- 
erable quantity of brush, which supplies Ta-chien-lu with fire- 
wood. But what surprised me beyond measure was to see two 
men employed repairing the road ; it was such an uncommon sight 
that we stopped for a few minutes to look at them work. 

A few miles above Ta-chien-lu we passed the mouth of a short 
valley running to the southwest, in which we saw the summer 
residence of the King of Chala. It is a Tibeto-Chinese house of 
no great size, and is known as the Yu-ling Kung. 

At four o'clock we reached Ta-chien-lu, and before going to my 
old lodgings in Yang lama's house, 1 stopped at the Bishop's, out- 
side the south gate, and found my good friends, Peres Mussotand 
Dejean, there to welcome me, for they too had been advised that 

* Bower calls Anya Amia To and Nashe Nashi. 



368 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

I was coming. We passed a couple of hours talking, though it 
was hard work at first for me, I had not spoken a European lan- 
guage for so long that I was continually dropping into Chinese or 
Tibetan. 

At Yang lama's house the Fdnbo, as they call his wife, for she 
belongs to the family of the head Agia of the country, received 
me at the gate, and in a few minutes a crowd of my old friends 
were filling the courtyard to greet me. I took my old lodgings 
of '89, and settled down for a few days of well-earned rest before 
starting out for Shanghai, which I will be able to reach by the ist 
of November. 

October j. — Lu Ming-yang, the lieutenant who was so kind 
to me at Kanze in 1889, and who is now here on waiting 
orders, called on me yesterday, but I was out. He came again 
to-day. He told me that after my departure from Kanze the 
lamas mobbed him in his Ya-men for having given me an escort 
to Ta-chien-lu and otherwise befriending me. They also asked 
him to give up the Kanze Horba, who had guided me from Jyakor 
gomba to Kanze, and who had taken refuge with him, as the mob 
wanted to put him to death. Lu kept the crowd off with the 
carbine 1 had given him, and after a long pow-wow lasting several 
days got them to consent to the guide's going back to Jya- 
kundo; but he says that he passed some very uncomfortable days 
before things were finally settled. 

Lu also told me that the Chala King is thinking of sending 
troops to Lit'ang to assist the Deba, his son-in-law, and thus 
bringing the war there to a close, as the Ta-chien-lu trade is suf- 
fering very much by it. 

The Chinese here have the following couplet : — 

" Chiang-k'a min chan pu-tif 
BaV ang ya-V ou yao pu-tS, 
Lit'ang tsamba chih pu-t&, 
Ho-k'ou hsien-hua shuo pu-tiJ'^ 

Translated this means : "At Chiang-k'a (Gart'ok), don't stand in 
the doorway; at Bat'ang, don't flirt with the girls; at Lit'ang, 
don't eat tsamba; at Ho-k'ou (Nyach'uk'a), don't talk twaddle." 
The explanation is said to be found in the well-established fact 
that the Chiang-k'a people are gossips, that the Bat'ang young 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 369 

women are very unreserved, that the Lit'ang tsamba is full of 
grit, and that the people of Hok'ou are fond of silly, empty talk. 
Pere Mussot showed me a map of Tibet, on which Bonvalot 
and Bower had roughly marked the routes they had followed. 
My route met theirs at Batasumdo, was more or less the same as 
theirs to Lagong, from which point to Gart'ok Bonvalot followed 
some little used trail, while Bower and I went over the highroad. 
Pere Mussot has very obligingly lent me all the money I require to 
take me to Shanghai. The kindness the fathers of the Tibetan 
mission have shown me on both my journeys I can never forget 
nor sufficiently acknowledge. 

October 4.. — The day passed rapidly, talking first to my French 
friends, then to old native acquaintances, and in making arrange- 
ments to continue the journey to Ya-chou Fu. I have hired a 
sedan-chair to take me to the latter place in six days, a day less 
than is usually used for the trip. I have been told a great deal 
about the terrible ravages of cholera (ma-chuo chen or wen) in 
Ssu-ch'uan this year; at Ch'eng-tu people have died by thousands. 
The disease has spread to the Ya-chou district,* where it is still 
raging, but Ta-chien-lu has escaped it, though it has been visited 
by typhoid fever — Pere Dejean has had it twice. 

Lu Ming-yang called again to ask me to dine with him to-mor- 
row. I mentioned to him the story of Punropa, so graphically 
told by Baber,t and asked him if he knew of any additional de- 
tails of this interesting episode in Tibetan history. He said that 
he had known Punropa well, that he was a Chin-ch'uan man and 
spoke and read Chinese. This explains why, having become a 
Lh'asa official, he was given the government of Lit'ang. For a 
while he was extremely popular there among both natives and 
Chinese, but I fancy he worked too much in the interest of China, 
hence his recall to Lh'asa and his sudden death by poison. 

The old king of Chala, until some twenty years ago, was a 
thorough-going Tibetan; he wore his hair long, carried a big 
sword in his belt and would suffer no interference from the Chi- 
nese. During a war with the Nya-rong (Chan-tui), in which he 
was hard pressed by his enemies, he had to ask the assistance of 

* I found nearly half the people of Ya-chou in mourning and funeral ceremonies 
going on in innumerable houses, but the people told me that the scourge was abating. 
\ E, C. Baber, Travels and Researches in Western China, 98, 



370 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

the Chinese Chun-liang fu and his troops. This he secured, but on 
the condition that he would henceforth wear a queue and dress like 
a Chinese ; he was forced to accede to these humiliating conditions. 
He has, nevertheless, resisted all Chinese encroachments on his 
states, and frequently orders out of Chala all Chinese who have 
surreptitiously settled there. His sons have been brought up as 
true Tibetans, and live and dress as such, but they cannot escape 
their fate. The present king's successor will be more and more 
under Chinese rule, and finally this strong little state, which has 
resisted its powerful neighbor's encroachments for a century more 
than Bat'ang and other parts of Eastern Tibet, will become a part 
of the province of Ssu-ch'uan, 

To the south of Chala is another large native state known as 
the Huang lama's country or Meli,* and south of it again live 
savage tribes (so say my informants, but I fancy the savages are 
Li-su). I have also been told that the Chin-ch'uan extends all 
the way from Wa-ssu-k'ou to Sung-pan T'ing or, in other words, 
to the Amdo country. f 

Musk, which, when 1 last visited Ta-chien-lu, was a most im- 
portant article of exportation, has given way to wool. The 
reason assigned to the fall in the price of musk (it fell to 4 kiian, 
but is now at 5 or 5)^) is said here to be the discovery by the 
British of a plant which has the same medicinal qualities and the 
same perfume.J As to the use to which the enormous quantities 
of elk horns II exported from here are put, I learn that they are 
taken to Chung-king and there ground up and are used in making 
a very good toilet powder {fen), in great demand among Chinese 
women. 

*"Mili" and " Terresdes lamas deMong Fan" are marked on A' Kn\\\\e.' s Carte du 
Si-Fan (V* Carte du Tibet), to the north of Li-Kiang Fu. See also Baber, op. cit., 
93 and 96. 

t On the Chin-ch'uan, which is divided into Little and Great Chin-ch'uan, see 
also Baber, op. cit., 94. 

X The Customs Returns for 1893 give the export of musk from Chung-king during 
that year as 72,766 ounces, valued at 478,192 Haikuan taels. During the same 
year 8,080 ounces of musk were imported into Shanghai from foreign countries. In 
1893 over 14,000,000 pounds of wool were exported from Chung-king. 

II They come principally from Lit'ang, but Ch'amdo and even the country farther 
west supplies a considerable quantity. 



JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 371 

October 5, — The Hsien-sheng and I dined to-day with Lu 
Ming-yang at his pretty little house on the mountain side over- 
looking the town. Speaking of Po-yul, he told me that it was 
divided into Po-mil or " Lower Po " and Po-to or " Upper Po."* 
The latter is inhabited by Drupa, but the former is now in the 
possession of people of Chinese descent. During the war between 
China and the Gorkas (in 1793 I think), a detachment of five 
hundred Chinese soldiers from Ssu-ch'uan and under the command 
of a Major ( Yo-chi) was started for the seat of war by way of Po- 
yul, a country then very little known to the Chinese. The detach- 
ment lost its way, and arriving in Po-ma, was so delighted with the 
beauty and fertility of the country that the men decided to go no 
farther and to make it their home. They married women of the 
country and greatly prospered, and their descendants still occupy 
the land. 

While Po-to is under the rule of Lh'asa, Po-mii is independent 
in fact, it being under the nominal control of a high Manchu officer 
stationed at Lh'asa who is known as the I Ch'in-ch'ai, " Envoy to 
the savage tribes," or San Ch'in-ch'ai, "Third Amban." This 
official has also in his jurisdiction Jyade, and a number of other 
tribes, thirty-five in all, among which is the little district of T'ai- 
ling (or Gata), between Ta-chien-lu and Dawo. 

Po-mii is visited by Lao-shan and Yunnanese traders, and it car- 
ries on a large trade with Derge, jyade and Lh'asa. The horses of 
Po-ma are famous throughout Tibet, and its leather work, iron 
work and jewelry, as well as the products of its looms, are 
celebrated and in great demand. The products of the soil are 
varied and of excellent quality, and altogether this country would 
seem to be the most fertile spot of Tibet. The intimate relations 
existing between Po-ma and Derge may also account for the 
superior quality and style of goods made in the latter country, 
which resemble closely those of the former, in fact, Lu Ming-yang 
said that, in his belief, the Po-ma people had taught those of 
Derge to work metal and leather in the way they now do. 

Lu told me also that the King of Derge, who is now about forty 
years old, is the son-in-law of one of the Ministers of State {Kal'dii) 

* These words are written Spod-smad and Spod stod. On d' Anville's Carte du 
Si-Fan, previously referred to, there is a " Pays de Pomsara " on the Chin sha river 
just north of Li-kiang Fu, and to the west of it he places Kung-pu (,Ken-Pou-Y) ; 
Pomsara is in all likelihood Po-ma. 



372 JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 

of Lh'asa, and that he constantly calls on the latter country to 
assist him in squeezing his own subjects, by whom he is very 
much disliked. He passes much of his time at Lh'asa, where he 
has a residence, and is entirely under Lh'asan influence, though 
his people are strongly opposed to that country, and have for years 
resisted its attacks on their national independence. 

This evening I gave the little Amdo lama, who has shared my 
fortunes ever since the middle of August, some money, enough to 
take him home to Sung-pan. 1 also settled my accounts with the 
Lao-han Ma Shuang-hsi, who will, however, travel with me as 
far as Ya-chou Fu, and thence go by way of Ch'iung-chou and 
Sung-pan to Hsi-ning. He does not look forward with much 
pleasure to seeing his home again; he would much prefer going 
directly to Shang-chia in the Ts'aidam and to his Mongol wife. 

The Hsien-sheng and Kao pa-erh go with me to Shanghai, 
whence the latter will return to Peking. As for the good Hsien- 
sheng, he wants to put some of his money in foreign-made 
articles at Shanghai, which he will sell at a good profit at Hsi- 
ning. He will go home by way of Han-k'ou, Hsi-an Fu and 
Lan-chou, and will probably reach his home about the same time 
that 1 will mine, in December. 

Four carriers {pei-tzu) left yesterday for Ya-chou with part of 
my luggage and two more will accompany me, carrying our bed- 
ding and cooking apparatus. 1 pay them at the rate of a rupee a 
day. My chair has eight coolies, paid at the same rate, and we 
will make good time. Several of these men carried me down this 
road in 1889. 

It was with a heavy heart that I said good-bye to-night to Pere 
Mussot and Pere Dejean, they have been so kind to me and we 
have got to know each other so well that I felt sad at the thought 
that I was probably saying farewell forever to them and the mis- 
sion, for which, they were good enough to say, 1 had done some 
good work in my wanderings in Tibet. 

Here I close my long journal; the road over which I still have 
to travel is the same as that which I followed in 1889; many 
others have gone up and down it before and since then, and most 
of them have written about it, and though much remains to be 
said of Ssu-ch'uan, it is not my province, Tibet is now behind me. 



SALAR VOCABULARY. 



373 



APPENDIX I. 



Salar Vocabulary. 



English. 


Salar. 


Osmanli 
Turkish. 


English. 


Salar. 


Osmanli 
Turkish. 


One 


Pir 


Bir 


Third month 


Ush-indye 


Uchinji 


Two 


ske 


Iki 


Fourth " 


Tuet-indye 


Dortinji 


Three 


Ush 


Uch 


This year 


Pile 


Buyil 


Four 


Tue 


Dort 


Next year 


Etch'e sagon 




Five 


Pesh 


Besh 


To-day 


Pugun 


Bu gum 


Six 


Alche 


Alti 


To-morrow 


Ete 




Seven 


Yete 


Yedi 


Day after to- 






Eight 


Sekese 


Sekiz 


morrow 


Pa-sagon 




Nine 


Tokos 


Dokuz 


Spring 


Loye 




Ten 


Un 


On 


Summer 


Ye 


Yaz 


Eleven 


Un-pir 


On-bir 


Autumn 


Use names of 




Twelve 


Un-iske 


On-iki 




7th, 8th, and 




Thirteen 


Un-ush 


On-iich 




9 1 h moons, 




Twenty 


Igermi 


Yigirmi 




Y e t - i n d y e. 




Thirty 


Utush 


Otuz 




Sekese -indye, 




Forty 


Kereu 


Kurk 




Tokos- indye 




Fifty 


Elle 


Elli 


Winter 


Kish 


Kysh 


Sixty 


Hamish 


Altmish 


North 


Ashar 




Seventy 


Yemush 


Yetmish 


South 


Uriss 




Eighty 


Siksiin 


Seksen 


East 


Ch'uyi 




Ninety 


Toksan 


Doksan 


West 


Ishfyi 




Hundred 


Pireus 


Bir jiiz 


Sky 


Asman 


Assman 


Thousand 


Firming 


Bir bin 


Earth (or 




Ten thou- 


Pir (or Pur?) 




ground ?) 


Yir 


Yer 


sand 


sanza 




Sun 


Kun 




Ten myriad 


Un sanza. 




Moon 


Ai 


Ai 


Year 


ii 




Star 


Yuldus 


Yildiz 


One Year 


Pir-il 


Yil 


Black 


( Karas 
< Ala 


Kara 


Two years 


Iske-il 


Iki yil 




First month 


Pir-indye 


Bir-inji 


White 


Ah'e(orAh'aseu' 


Ak 


Second " 


Isk-indye 


Ikinji 


Blue 


Kuh 


Guik 



374 



SALAR VOCABULARY. 



English. 


Salar 


Osmanli 
Turkish. 


English. 


Salar. 


Osmanli 
Turkish. 


Yellow 


Keuzeu 




Girl 


Anna (or Kezeu 


1 Ana 


Red 


11 




Father 


Ap'a (Tibetan) 


Baba 


Green 


Yashil 


Yeshil 


Mother 


Ama (or Ichia) 




Mountain 


T'ar 


Dagh 


Brothers 


Arene (?) 




Stone 


Tash 


Dash 


Younger bro 






Ground 


Yir 


Yer 


ther 


Eni 




River 


Uzen 




Sisters 


Ehe sanye 




Water 


Su (or Ossu) 


Su 


Elder broth 






Wind 


Yel 


Yel 


er'swife(?) Yinguo 




Rain 


Yarmur 


Yaghmur 


Friend 


Nuhur seda 




Snow 


K'ar 


Kiar 


House 


Oye (or Owe) 


Ev 


Iron 


Temur 


Demir 


Wall 


Tarn 




Gold 


Altan (or Altun) Altyn 


Window 


Terja 




Silver 


Kumush 


Gumush 


Table 


Shira 




Copper 


Tuguma 




Fire pan 


Huo-pen (Chi- 




Head 


Pash 


Bash 




nese) 




Face 


Jamban 




Teapot 


Tangun 




Language 


Ka-cha (Tibetan) 




Candle 


La (Chinese) 




Nose 


Purui 


Burun 


Flint 


Chamar tash 


Chakmak 


Lips 


Aks 


Agz 






dashi 


Teeth 


T'lch 


Dish 


Tinder 


G5 


Kau 


Ears 


Golak(or01osh?) 


Kolak 


Strike-a-light 


Ch'a-ma 


Chakmak 


Hand 


Ell 


El 


Axe 


Palta 


Balta 


Finger 


Firm a 


Parmak 


Knife 


Pija 




Thumb 


Pash pirma 


Bash par- 


Little wooder 


1 








mak. 


bowl 


Aih'a (Mongol) 




Forefinger 


Irmum 




Spoon 


Shinah'a (Mon- 




Second finger Otta 






gol) 




Third finger 


Mazum 




Lamp 


Chiraleu(Persian 




Little finger 


Seje 






chiragh) 




Finger nail 


Terna 


Turnak 


Fire 


Ott 


At(esh) 


Foot 


Enje 




Coal 


Kuomeur 


Kyumiir 


Eye 


Kuso (or Kos) 


Goz 


Wood 


Arashe 


Aghaj 


Eyebrows 


Kulu 




Wine 


Sorma 




Eyelashes 


Sukulu 




Beef 


Kolh'e 




Arm 


Gol 


Kol 


Mutton 


Koye 


Koyun 


Leg 


Tuz 




Milk 


Sut 


Sud 


Throat 


Porta (Portara or 




White salt 


T'us 


Tuz 




Pohot'eush 


Boghaz 


Salt 


Kurtus (or Ku- 


Kuru tuz 


Beard 


Sah'al 


Sakal 




t'us) 


(dry salt) 


Tongue 


Till . 


Dil 


Butter 


Ah'er 




Man 


Erkish (or Erke) 


Erkek 


Chicken 


T'oh 


Tawuk 


Woman 


Kadun (or Ka- 




Eggs 


Umota 


Yimurta 




dunksh) 


Kyatun 


Tsamba 


Tahan 




Boy 


Ao (Oil or Bal- 




Tea 


Ch'a (Chinese) 


Chai 




aksh) 


Oghul 


Vinegar 


La-su (Chinese) 





SALAR VOCABULARY. 



375 



English. 


Salar. 


Osmanli 
Turkish. 


English. Salar. O^manH 


Red pepper 


La-tzu (Chinese) 




Horse At 


Garlic 


Samza 


Sarimsak 


Stallion Erh-ma(Chinese) 


Onion 


Ts'ohan 


Soghan 


Gelding Sha-ma(Chinese) 


Bread 


Erne 




Mare Mu-ma(Chinese) 


Rice 


Tzut'uran 




Colt At palas 


Brown Sugar 


Kara sha-tang 




Ass Esh 




(Chinese) 




Mule Losa (Chinese) 


White sugar 


Aha sha-tang 




Camel Teuye 




(Chinese) 




Ox Kole 


Potato 


Yang yu (Chi- 




Wild yak Haina (Mongol?) 




nese) 




Domesticyak Umuso(Mongol) 


Chopsticks 


Ch'uko 




Dog, male Erke isht 


Porcelain 






Dog, female Tchist 


bowl 


Tsanza 




Goat Esko 


Tobacco 


Yen (Chinese) 




Cat Mishu 


Pear 


Armut 


Armud 


Crow Kalh'a Kargha 


Felt 


Ch'eh 


Keche 


Musk deer Pao (Chinese) 


Winter fur 






Musk Yufer 


gown 


Ismak(orTeurde) 




Wolf Puri 


Hat 


Sorok 




Bear (k'ou 


Belt 


Bulh'a 




hsiung) isht atse 


Trousers 


Ishtan 




Bear {jen 


Socks 


Lingwa(C>^. Chi- 




hsiung) Kshat 




nese wa-tzu) 




Tiger Pass 


Boots 


Etu 




Rhubarb Djim (Tibetan) 


Queue 


Sash 




Barber Pash ilgur 


Clothes 


T'un 




The Emperor Huang shang 


Sandals 


Hai (Chinese) 




(Chinese) 


Button 


T'ugma(C/". Tib- 




Mandarin Pech 




etan tob-chi) 




Soldier Liang-tza (Chi- 


Pillow 


Yerto 




nese) 


Looking glass Kusku 




Hsi-fan Tur 


Cotton 


Mamu 


Pambuk 


Mongol Mazur 


Cotton doth 


P'ost 




Chinese Kaffir 


Stirrup 


T'eng (Chinese) 




Chinese lan- 


Matchlock 


Yerma nechte 




guage Mohul kacha 


Gunpowder 


Em 




Bayan rong Wayen-rong 


Gun 


Kanju 




T'ing (Tibetan) 


Bow 


Ya 


Yag 


LanChou Fu Che-t'ai (Chi- 


Arrow 


Ush 


Ok 


nese colloquial 


Sword 


Kilish 


Kilij 


designation of 


Whip 


Kamjo 


Kamcha 


a Governor- 


Pen 


Kalam (Arabic) 


Kalem 


general) 


Paper 


Hahe 




H sun -hua 


Book 


Shu (Chinese) 




T'ing Yadza (Tibetan) 


Chinese cash 


Hel 




Yellow River Muren (Mongol) 



376 



SALAR VOCABULARY. 



English. 


Salat. 


Osmanli 
Turkish. 


English. Salar. 


Osmanli- 
Turkish. 


Good 


Iskur 




Eat, eat! Ash, ish 




Bad 


Ishimas 


Ish-imez 
("itisnot 
good") 


1 have eaten 

enough Tuito 
I do not care 




Rich 


Parkish 




(or wish) 




Poor 


Yarkish 




to eat Ishimus 


Istemem 


Cold 

I 


Tsormo 




What is the Ishtye ashapar 




Men 


Ben 


price of (or Nech kale- 




You 


Sen 


Sen 


this? bar) 




He 


Ush 


O 


Haveyou eat- 




The boy is 






en ? Pugun ash 




good 


Balaksh iskur 




Get off your 




This man is 






horse Endege 




good 


Kishi irshider 




Get on your 




That man is 


Ukshi irshi em- 




horse Ats-min 


Ati bin 


bad 


ester 




Smoke! Yen ta (Chinese) 
Go away! Wara, wara 




Those three 








men 


Ush ischio 




I understand Pile 


Bil-ir-im 


To write 


Pitegan 




I do not un- 




To shave 


Jamban ilgur 




derstand Pilmes 


Bil-mem 


To eat 


Ash 


Ash 


So you have 








("food") 


come ! Kelto 


Geldin 


To drink 


Ish 


Ich-mek 


Yes, I have 




To ride 


Min 


• 


come Kelge 


Geldim 


How old are 


Sen nyeche esh- 




Are you well? Sa ishitero 




you? 


apar (or Sen 
piril neche) 




1 am well Ish 
Wheredoyou 


Igi-im 


I beat him 


Men antugur 




come from? San kalawahur 




The coal is 


Kuomeur kala- 




Where are 




burning(or 


beur 




you going? San katengeljir 




Light the 
fire ?) 






He is writing Pite 
Heisgoingto 




Is the food 


Ashwa me yur- 




write Pitegaro 




ready ? 


ter 









y 



SAN-CH'UAN T'U-JEN VOCABULARY. 



377 



APPENDIX II. 



San-Ch'uan T'u-jen Vocabulary. 



English. 

One 

Two 

Three 

Four 

Five 

Six 

Seven 

Eight 

Nine 

Ten 

Eleven 

Twelve 

Thirteen 

Twenty 

Twenty-one 

Thirty 

Thirty-one 

Forty 

Year 

Month 

This year 

Last year 

Next year 

To-day 

To-morrow 

Day after to-morrow 

Three days hence 

Spring 

Summer 

Autumn 

Winter 



San-Ch'jtan 
T'u-jen. 


English. 


San-Ch'uan 
T'u-jen. 


Nike 


North 


Sorge tala 


Kuer 


South 


Baran tala 


Kurban 


East 


? 


Terpien 


West 


? 


Tabun 


Sky 


Tengri 


Chirkun 


Star 


Hotu 


Dulon 


Sun 


Nara 


Nemen 


Moon 


Sara 


Isun 


Black 


Kara 


Harban 


White 


Chekan 


Harban-nike 


Blue 


Koko 


Harban-kuer 


Yellow 


Sha 


Harban-kurban 


Green 


Nohon 


Korun 


Cloud 


Elye 


Korun-nike 


Mountain 


Ula 


Kuchin 


River 


Areu 


Kuchin-nike 


Water 


Ussu 


Techin 


Stone 


Tash 


Huan 


Ground 


Kadra 


Sara 


Wind 


Ke 


Keto huan 


Rain 


Kura 


Tanye huan 


Snow 


Chekseu 


Kuo nien (Chinese) 


Iron 


Timur 


Nyotur 


Gold 


Artan 


Magashe 


Silver 


Miengo 


Cheneta 


Copper 


Tio-she 


No kutur 


Brass 


Sha tio-she 


Ta ch'un (Chinese) 


Road 


Mor 


Na chu 


House 


Kar (Tibetan) 


Ukur 


Tent 


Ch'ang-fang (Chinese) 


Ukur 


Cave dwelling 


Yao-tung (Chinese) 



378 



SAN-CH'UAN T'U-JEN VOCABULARY. 



English. 

Door 

Fire 

Flint 

Tinder 

Gunpowder 

Pine tree 

Birch tree 

Willow tree 

Grass 

Wheat 

Barley 

Bean 

h[\\\tX{0\.hsiao mi) 

lA\\\t\.{Ch.huangmi) 

Wine 

Tea 

Domestic cattle 

Domestic yak 

Wild yak 

Sheep 

Goat 

Horse 

Camel 

Mule 

Ass 

Dog 

Chicken 

Cat 

Rat 

Wolf 

Bear 

Egg 

Milk 

Butter 

Flour 

Tsamba 

Tobacco 

Felt 

Leather 

White cotton cloth 

Blue cotton cloth 

Pulo (Tibetan cloth) 

Satin 

Silk 

Musk 

Fur gown 



San-Ch'uan 
T'ti-jen, 

ite 

Shita 

Kite tash 

Hula 

Huo yao (Chinese) 

Rchura 

Hua mu (Chinese) 

Bayen 

Epeseu 

Pite 

Ch'ing-k'u (Chinese) 

Pitcha 

Kuts-amo 

Nara-amo 

Turas 

Ts'a (Chinese) 

Andras okur 

Musun 

Kanyer 

Konyi 

Yima 

Mori 

Time 

Lo-sa (Chinese) 

Rjige 

Nohue 

Toko 

Miore 

Lotru 

Chuna 

Hsiung (Chinese) 

Endege 

Na-tzu (Chinese) 

Ch'okan tosu 

Ch'okan kuru 

Tarh'a 

Yen (Chinese) 

Sta 

Koraseu 

Ch'okan pus(Chinese) 

Koko pus 

T'ruk (Tibetan) 

Torgo 

Chiu-tzu (Chinese) 

Trakar 

Nike 



English. 

Hat 

Boot 

Knife 

Sword 

Bow 

Arrow 

Ax 

Hammer 

Gun 

Nail 
Tobacco pipe 

Man 

Woman 

Father 

Mother 

Son 

Daughter 

Grandchild 
Elder brother 

Younger brother 

Boy 

Girl 

Old man 

Young man 

Head 

Teeth 

Ear 

Nose 

Tongue 

Hand 

Thumb 

Forefinger 

Second finger 

Third finger 

Little finger 

Foot 

Leg 

Beard 

Speech (language) 

Chinese man 



San-Ch'uan 
T'u-jen. 

Marka 

Kutusu 

Mula chitoho 

Urto 

Lumo 

Sumo 

Seko 

Shupike 

Nu-chiang (Chinese, 
Niao chia7ig) 

Kataseu 

Yen p'ur (Chinese, 
yen; Tibetan,/'or) 

Nun kun 

Rkonor kun 

Ap'a (Tibetan) 

Ana 

K'o 

Yato (Chinese, Ya- 
Vou) 

Sun-tzCi (Chinese) 

Kaka (Chinese, Ko- 
ko) 

T'io 

Bule 

Akur 

Ta-kokon (Ch. Ta 
ko-ko) 

Dzalu 

Torge 

Shutu 

Ch'ike 

Kaper 

Kele 

Kar 

Rke kuru 

Kumrke kuru 

Tunda kuru 
? 

Chuch'ta kuru 

Kor 

Guya 

Skar 

Uke 

Chung-yuan (Chi- 
nese) 



I 



SAN-CWUAN T'U-JEN VOCABULARY. 



379 



English. 

Mongol 
Fan-tzu 
T'u-jen 
Yellow River 

Thou 

He 

No plural pronouns 

This 

That 

Far 

Near 

Here 

There 



Sati-Ch' nan 
Tn-jen. 


English. 


San-Ch'uan 
T'u-jen. 


Mongor 




To write 


Pitcher chugenyi 


Tepe 




To sleep 


Untanyi 


Nutan-ni 


kun 


It blows 


Ke-polan 


Murun 




It rains 


Kura polan 


Pi 




Good 


Shambon 


T'a 




Bad 


Moban 


Ch'i 




This man is good 


Ni nike kun shambon 


IS 




That man is bad 


Ti nike kun moban 


Ni 




Are you well ? 


Ch'i sambeno 


Ti 




Whence do you 




Kolo 




come? 


Ch'i anchi sarba 


Tatama 




Where are you go- 




Niento 




ing? 


Ch'i anchi sini 


Tiento 









38o CENTRAL TIBET PLANTS. 



APPENDIX III. 

Central Tibet Plants. 

By W. Botting Hemsley, F. R. S., A. L. S. 

[Extract from the Journal of the Linnean Society — 
Botany, Vol. xxx, pp. 131-140.] 



Since the foregoing paper on Dr. Thorold's Tibet plants and Captain Picot's 
Kuen-lun plants was read, the Kew Herbarium has been enriched, through the kind- 
ness of Prof. C. S. Sargent, Director of the Arnold Arboretum, Harvard University, 
U. S. A., by the collection of dried plants made by Mr. W. W. Rockhill on his last 
journey in Tibet, in 1892. * * * I had prepared a brief outline of Mr. Rock- 
hill's route from a condensed report of his account of his journey read before 
the Royal Geographical Society in March of the past year; but on the very day 
of going to press I have received a prefatory note from him, which is much more to 
the purpose, and may follow here: — 

"The object I had in view when making the little collection of plants, which, 
through Professor Ch. S. Sargent's kindness, has been examined and classified by 
Mr. Hemsley, of the Royal Gardens at Kew, was to give some idea of the flora of 
the country between the Kuen-lun range to the north and the inhabited regions of 
Tibet adjacent to the Tengri Nor on the south. This region has an average altitude 
of 15,000 feet above sea level along the route followed by me in 1892, and had not, 
prior to my visit, been explored. 

" The route followed in 1879 by Col. Prjevalsky, when traveling towards Lh'asa, 
which was nearly parallel to the one that 1 took, differed considerably as regards the 
configuration of the country from mine; and consequently I anticipated that notable 
differences in the flora along the two roads would be discovered. 

" I traversed this country in the months of May, June, July, and part of August, 
and heavy snowstorms and nearly daily frosts occurred during this period, though the 
thermometer rose more than once to 70° F. , and even 83° on one occasion in the 
shade at 2 p. m. The mean temperature from the 17th of May, when we entered 
the mountainous region to the south of the Ts'aidam, to the nth of August, when 
we descended to below the Timber line (13,500 feet above sea-level) on the Ramach'u, 
where I ceased collecting plants, except such as the natives pointed out to me as 
being used by them either as food or medicinally, is shown in the following table: — 

1892. 7 A. M. 2 p. M. 7 p. M. 

May 17 to 31 ... -f 37r5 F. -f 54^6 F. -f 37:3 F- 

June -f35.7 -^-55:9 -f38r3 

July 4-43fo -f54r6 +44^2 

August I to II . . +40^6 +6i.°5 +47f3 



CENTRAL TIBET PLANTS. 381 

" Nearly the whole of the region traversed in this interval was of sandstone forma- 
tion, the predominating color of which was bright red. The water was invariably 
brackish, and in many cases undrinkable; the soil everywhere sandy, or covered 
with a rather fine gravel, and occasionally a little clay. The grasses grew in bunches, 
nowhere forming a sod, except around the rare pools of pure water fed by the melt- 
ing snows we occasionally passed. 

" I was careful to collect all the flowering plants I saw along my route, and the 
barrenness of this region may be judged by the very small number 1 have brought 
home with me. 

" The only edible plant we found in this country was a species of onion {Allitim 
senescens), which grew in the sand in great quantities at altitudes higher than 
15,000 feet above sea-level, though we looked for it in vain below this level. 

" I may here remark that the rhubarb plant, which I found growing in enormous 
quantities on the north and northeastern slopes of mountains on the 1 ch'u, Len ch'u, 
and other feeders of the Jyama-nu ch'u, thrived at an altitude above sea-level ranging 
from 12,000 to 13,500 feet. 1 note this fact as Col. Prjevalsky (Mongolia, ii, p. 84) 
says that this plant rarely flourishes at an elevation of more than 10,000 feet above 
the level of the sea." 

"W. WOODVILLE ROCKHILL." 

This is an exceedingly interesting collection, especially when examined in connec- 
tion with Dr. Thorold's; the plants for the greater part being of the same habit and 
diminutive size. More than half of them, however, are different species; and most 
of them had previously only been collected by Prjevalsky, from whose specimens 
the lamented Maximowicz described them. Several, it will be seen, too, were pre- 
viously only known from the extreme western part of Tibet. In all cases where the 
species are different from Thorold's their general distribution is given. The localities, 
altitudes, and geographical positions were supplied by Mr. Rockhill. 



Enumeration of the Plants collected by 
Mr. W. Woodville Rockhill. 

1. Clematis graveolens, Lindl. — Flowers light yellow. Po chu valley; very 
abundant at 14,000 ft. Lat. N. 31° 45', long. E. 94° 45'. Aug. 14, 1892. West- 
ern Himalaya at 6,000 to 11,000 ft., Tibet and Western China. This form is the 
same as that named C. orientalis var. tangutica by Maximowicz, but if the two 
are maintained as independent species it is better referred here. 

2. Anemone imbricata, Maxim. Fl. Tangut. i, p. 8, t. 22. ff. 1-6. — Foot-hills 
of Dang la mountains, N. W. extremity of range at 16,500 ft. Lat. N. 33° 40', long. 
E. 90° 35'. June 27, 1892. Previously collected only by Prjevalsky on the extreme 
Upper Yang-tse kiang in Tibet, 

3. Ranunculus tricuspis, Maxim, Fl. Tangut. i, p. 12; Enum. PI. Mongol. 
i. p. 16, t. 4. ff. 17-27.— Valley of Murus, valley bottom at 15,640 ft. Lat. N. 33° 
44', long, E, 91° 18', June 23, 1892, Mongolia, 



382 CENTRAL TIBET PLANTS. 

4. Delphinium grandiflorum, Linn. — Ke ch'u valley at 12,700 ft. Lat. N. 31° 
25', long. E. 96°, 28'. Aug. 22, 1892. On river-bottom; fine forest growth, 
mostly pines (?), on hillsides; fine grass. 

5. Delphinium pvlzowii, Maxim, in Mel. Biol. ix. p. 709; Fl. Tangut. i. p. 
21, t. 3. — Dang ch'u valley, river-bottom of gravel and clay; good fodder, at 14,500 
ft. Lat. N. 32° 12', long. E. 92° 12'. July 23, 1892. Mongolia. 

6. Meconopsis horridula, Hook.f. et Thorns. — Plateau west of Dang la mount- 
ains at 16,350 ft. Lat. N. 32° 51', long. E. 89° 44'. July 3, 1892. Sandy soil, 
some clay. 

7. CoRYDALis HENDERSONii, y/ifwj/. — Basin of Murus. Extreme head of valley on 
foot-hills of Dang la mountains at 16,340 ft. Lat. N. 33° 43', long. E. 90° 50'. 
June 25, 1892. Sandstone. See description of this species in Thorold's list at p. 
109 (of present volume of Linnean Soc. Joum.). 

8. Parrya exscapa, Ledeb. — Basin of Murus. Extreme head of valley, on foot- 
hills of Dang la mountains, sandstone, at 16,340 ft. Lat. N. 33° 43', long. E. 90° 
50'. June 25, 1892. Altai mountains and Western Tibet. 

9. Arabis, sp. ?. Insufficient for determination. — Valley of Tsacha-tsang-bo ch'u 
at 14,700 ft. Lat. N. 32° 13', long. E. 90° 14'. July 6, 1892. 

10. Erysimum cham^ephyton, Maxim. Fl. Tangut. i, p. 63, t. 28. ff. i-io. — 
Hill-slope two miles north of Murus river (head-waters of Yang-tse-kiang) ; sandy 
soil, some clay, at 14,750 ft. Lat. N. 33° 53', long. E. 91° 31'. June 21, 1892. 
Basin of Murus in lateral valley, sandstone, at 15,700 ft. Lat. N. 33° 45', long. E. 
91° 05'. June 24, 1892. Northeastern Tibet. 

11. Eutrema prjevalskii, Maxim. Fl. Tangut. i, p. 68, t. 28. ff. 11-23. — 
Basin of Murus, in lateral valley, sandstone, at 15,700 ft. Lat. N. 33° 45', long. E. 
91° 05'. June 24, 1892. Northeastern Tibet. 

12. MvRicARiA PRosTRATA, Hook. f. ct T/ioms. in Benth. et Hook/. Gen. PI. 
i, p. 161. — 'JpperNaichi gol valley near river at 12,130 ft. Lat. N. 35° 52', long. E. 
93° 49'. May 21, 1892. Called "aura kashim " by the Mongols. First plant in 
flower seen on journey. 1 have followed Maximowicz in restoring this form to 
specific rank. It is restricted to the elevated alpine regions of the Himalayas and 
Tibet. See Maximowicz (Fl. Tangut. p. 95, t. 31), where it is fully described and 
figured. In Hooker's Fl. Brit. lad. i. p. 250, it is treated as a variety of M. ger- 
manica. 

13. GuELDENST.€DTiA ?, insufficient for determination. — Gela, on Ramong ch'u at 
12,670 ft. Lat. N. 31° 40', long. E. 94^ 36'. Aug. 13, 1892. Fine crops of barley 
and turnips near by. 

14. Astragalus or Oxytropis, sp. ? Material insufficient to determine the genus. 
— Toktomai-ulan-muren at 14,340 ft. Lat. N. 34° 09', long. E. 91° 30'. June 20, 
1892. Sandy soil. 

15. Astragalus or Oxytropis, sp. ? Material insufficient to determine the genus 
with certainty. — Valley of Murus, head-waters Yang-tse kiang, at 14,900 ft. Lat. N. 
33° 45'i long- E. 91° 20'. June 22, 1892. 



CENTRAL TIBET PLANTS. 3^3 

i6. PoTENTiLLA FRUTicosA, LtHfi., wz\. PUMiLA, Hook.f. — Plateau west of Dang la 
mountains at 16,350 ft, Lat. N. 32° 51', long. E. 89° 44'. July 3, 1892. Sandy 
soil, some clay. 

17. PoTENTiLLA ANSERiNA, Liftti. — Plateau west of Dang la mountains; sandy, 
some clay, at 16,220 ft. Lat. N. 33° 09', long. E. 89° 38'. July 2, 1892. This is 
widely spread in the temperate and cold regions of both the northern and southern 
hemispheres. 

18. PoTENTiLLA NiVEA, Litiu. — Ke ch'u Valley; on river-bottom at 12,700ft. Lat. 
N. 31° 25', long. E. 96° 28'. Aug. 22, 1892. Fine forest growth, mostly pines (?), 
on hill-sides; fine grass. Alpine and Arctic regions of the northern hemisphere. 

19. Sedum ALGiDUM, Ledeb.,\zx. tanguticum, ^i2;riV«.— Camp north of Tsacha- 
tsang-bo ch'u; sandy soil, at 15,650 ft. Lat. N. 32° 28', long. E. 90° 03'. July 5, 
1892. The species is a native of the Altai regions of Siberia ; the variety was des- 
cribed from specimens from northwestern Kan-su. 

20. Aster tibeticus. Hook. /. — Valley of Murus, valley-bottom at 15,640 ft, 
Lat. N. 33° 44', long. E. 91° 18'. June 23, 1892, Western Tibet and Kashmir at 
altitudes of 14,000 to 16,000 ft. 

21. Inula? Material insufficient for determination. — Foot-hills of Dang la mount- 
ains, northwestern extremity of range at 16,500 it. Lat. N. 33° 40', long. E. 90° 
35'. June 27, 1892. 

22. Leontopodium alpinum, Cass., \z\. — Bank Chib-ch'ang-ts'o (Lake Glenelg). 
Hill-side; limestone and red sandstone; lake salt, at 16,000 ft. Lat. N. 33° 27', long. 
E. 90° 10'. June 30, 1892. Alps of Europe, through Central Asia and North India 
to China, ascending in the Himalayas to nearly 18,000 ft. The variety collected by 
Mr. Rockhill is a very elegant little plant about three inches high with remarkably 
spathulate leaves. 

23. Leontopodium stracheyi, C. B. Clarke in Herb. Kew. (L. alpinum, Cass., 
var. Stracheyi, Hook./.). — Ru ch'u valley, in river-bottom, at 12,100 ft. Lat. N. 
31° 10', long. E. 95° 12'. Aug. 16, 1892. Fine crops of barley and turnips now 
ripe. Also a little wheat. This Western Tibet and Himalayan plant is so easily dis- 
tinguished from the other forms that it may well be accorded specific rank. It ranges 
from Kumaon to Nepal. 

24. Anaphalis mucronata, C. B. Clarke. — Basin of Dang ch'u, right bank affluent. 
Clay and sand-gravel, at 15,180 ft. Lat. N. 32° 20', long. E. 92° 08'. July 21, 
1892. This form is united with A. nubigena, DC, in the " Flora of British India." 
It is only found at great altitudes in the Himalayas and Tibet. 

25. Antennaria nana, Hook.f. et Thorns. — Valley of Murus, head-waters Yang- 
tse kiang, at 14,900 ft. Lat. N. 33° 45', long. E. 91° 20'. June 22, 1892. Western 
Tibet in the Nubra and Shayuk valleys at 12,000 to 14,000 ft. 

26. Saussurea tangutica, Maxim, in Mel. Biol., xi, p. 247. — Near summit of 
Gam (or Angti) la at 15,600 ft. Lat. N. 30° 40', long. E. 98° 13'. Sep. 4, 1892. 
Tangut and Northern Tibet. The leaves are infused and used by the natives as a 
tonic. Called in Tibetan Sha-p'o gong-t'ag. It is said to grow only on the west 
side of this mountain. The Chinese call it " snow lotus" {Hsueh lieti). 



384 CENTRAL TIBET PLANTS. 

27. Taraxacum palustre, DC. — Valley of Murus, valley-bottom at 15,640 ft. 
Lat. N. 33° 44', long. E. 91° 18'. June 23, 1892. This is usually regarded as a 
variety of the almost ubiquitous T. officinale. 

28. Cyananthus incanus, Hook, f, et Thorns., var. leiocalyx, Franch. in 
MoroVs Joum. de Bot. i, 1887, p. 279. — Ke ch'u valley at 12,700 ft. Lat. N. 31° 
25', long. E. 96° 28'. Aug. 22, 1892. On river-bottom. Fine forest growth, mostly 
pines (?) on hill-sides; fine grass. A Himalayan species, of which this is a naked- 
calyx variety, also found in Yiin-nan. The typical form inhabits alpine localities at 
12,000 to 16,000 ft. 

29. Androsace tapeta, Maxim., in Mel. Biol, xii, p. 754. — Valley of Murus, 
head-waters Yang-tse kiang, at 14,900 ft. Lat. N. 33° 45', long. E. 91° 20'. June 
22, 1892. Kan-su and SsQ ch'uan, in Western China. 

30. Androsace villosa, Linn., var. latifolia, Ledeb. — Valley of Murus, valley- 
bottom at 15,640 ft. Lat. N. 33° 44', long. E. 91° 18'. June 23, 1892. This 
species is widely dispersed from Asia Minor through Central Asia, North Asia, and 
the mountains of North India. 

31. Gentiana rockhilli, Hemsl., n. sp. Species G. aristatcB, Maxim., similis 
sed minor strictior floribus fere cylindricis angustissimis. Annua, erecta, simplex 
vel pauciramosa, 1-2-pollicaris, glaberima. Folia subscariosa, lineari-subulata, vera 
conduplicata, 3-4 lineas longa, apice breviter aristata, basi semiamplexicaulia, sub- 
erecta, cauli fere appressa. Flores cserulei, terminales, solitarii, subsessiles, circiter 
9 lineas longi; calyx subscariosus, coroUse tubum asquans, dentibus lineari-subulatis; 
corollse sursum leviter dilatatas, lobi breves, oblongi, vix acuti, erecti, conniventes, 
intermediis brevioribus albis tenuissimis, fauce nuda; stamina cum pistillo omnino 
inclusa; styli brevissimi, stigmatibus capitatis. Ke ch'u valley at 12,700 ft. Lat. N. 
31° 25', long. E. 96° 28'. Aug. 22, 1892. On river-bottom. Fine forest growth, 
mostly pines (?), on hill-sides; fine grass. 

32. Tretocarya siKKiMENsis, OHver, in Hook. Ic. Plant, t. 2255. — Basin of 
Su ch'u valley, north side, Drayalamo pass, at 14,600 ft. Lat. N. 31° 52', long. E. 
93° 17'. Aug. 2, 1892. Limestone; fine grass; flowers blue, very abundant. 
Sikkim Himalaya at 11,500 ft., and Western China near Ta-chien-lu. Mr. Rockhill's 
specimen is much smaller than the others and nearly glabrous. 

33. Pedicularis oederi, Vahl (P. versicolor, Wahlenb.). — Valley of Murus, 
valley-bottom at 15,640 ft. Lat. N. 33° 44', long. E. 91° 18'. June 23, 1892. 
Alpine and Arctic regions of Europe, Asia, and America. 

34. Pedicularis prjevalskii, Maxim, in MSI. Biol, x, p. 84, et xii. p. 787, n. 2. 
fig. 2. — Large state. Basin of Su ch'u, valley north side, Drayalamo pass, at 14,000 
ft. Lat. N. 31° 52', long. E. 93° 17'. Aug. 2, 1892. Limestone; fine grass; 
flowers blue, very abundant. Eastern Himalaya, Tibet, and China. 

35. Laootis brachystachya, Maxim, in MSI. Biol, xi, p. 300. — Hill-slope two 
miles north of Murus river, head-waters Yangtsekiang, at 14,750 ft. Lat. N. 33° 
53', long. E. 91° 31'. June 21, 1892. Sandy soil, some clay. Kansuh. 

36. Polygonum bistorta, Linn. — Pochu valley at 14,000 ft. Lat. N. 31° 45', 
long. E. 94° 45'. Aug. 14, 1892. Temperate and cold regions of Europe, Asia, and 
America. 

37. Polygonum viviparum, Linn. — Pochu valley at 14,000 ft. Lat. N. 31° 45', 
long. E. 94' 45', Aug. 14, 1892. The seeds are parched and ground and eaten 



CENTRAL TIBET PLANTS. 385 

mixed with barley-meal {tsantba). Tibetans call it ranpa or ramba. Temperate 
and Arctic regions of Europe, Asia, and America. 

38. Polygonum bistortioides, Boiss. — Rama ch'u valley, hill-side, at 1,200 ft. 
Lat. N. 31° 48', long. E. 94° 28'. Aug. 12, 1892. Used by the natives for food 
like P. viviparum. This species or variety is found in Asia Minor and Persia. 
Although very distinct from ordinary P. bistorta, Boissier (Flora Orientalis, iv, p. 
1028) subsequently united it with that species. 

39. Iris thoroldi. Baker, ante, p. 118, et Hook. Ic. Plant, ined. — Sharakuyi- 
gol, hill-slope at 13,800 ft. Lat. N. 35° 50', long. E. 93° 27'. May 29, 1892. 
Described from specimens collected by Dr. Thorold at an altitude of 17,800 ft. Mr. 
Rockhill's specimens furnish better flowers. 

40. TuLiPA (§Orithyia) sp. aff. T. eduli, Baker. — Sharakuyi-gol, hill-slope at 
13,800 ft. Lat. N. 35° 50', long. E. 93° 27'. May 29, 1892. Tulipa edulis is a 
native of Japan, and Mr. Rockhill's one flower is insufficient for satisfactory identifi- 
cation, 

41. Carex moorcroftii, Boott. — Hill-slope two miles north of Murus river, head- 
waters Yangtsekiang, at 14,750 ft. Lat. N. 35° 53', long. E. 91° 31'. Sandy soil, 
some clay. June 21, 1892. Yarkand and Western Himalaya. 

42. KOBRESIA SARGENTIANA, //i?Wj/. , n. Sp. R . SChCKHOtdei vMt Z^m\s Std hxdiC- 

teis latissimis spicam fere omnino involventibus late scariosis subtruncatis simul 
emarginatis. Hill-slope two miles north of Murus river, head-waters Yang-tse kiang, 
at 14,750 ft. Lat. N. 33° 53', long. E. 91° 31', Sandy soil, some clay. June 21, 
1892. 

43. MiscANTHus SINENSIS, Auderss. — Near top of Fei-yueh-kuan pass, southwest of 
Ya-chou Fu, in West Ssu-ch'uan, at 3,583 ft. Oct. 11, 1892. China, from Japan and 
Korea to Hongkong and Canton, Luchu and Bonin Islands, Tonquin, Borneo, and 
Celebes. 

44. Stipa, insufficient for determination. — Hill-slope two miles north of Murus 
river, head-waters Yang-tse kiang, at 14,750 ft. Lat. N. 33° 53', long. E. 91° 31'. 
Sandy soil, some clay. June 21, 1892. 

45. Calamagrostis, sp. — Near top of Fei-yueh-kuan pass, southwest of Ya-chou 
Fu, in West Ssu-ch'uan, at 3,583 ft. Oct. 11, 1892. 

46. Festuca ovina, Linn.} — Hill-slope two miles north of Murus river, head- 
waters Yang-tse kiang, at 14,750 ft. Lat. N. 33° 53', long. E. 91° 31'. Sandy soil, 
some clay. June 21, 1892. Europe, North Africa, Siberia, Himalaya, North and 
South America, and mountains of Australasia. Mr. Rockhill's specimen is a mere 
fragment. 

47. UsNEA BARBATA, FHes.—VaWty of Pontramo, east of Bat'ang, at 12,600 ft. 
Lat. N. 29° 59', long. E. 99° 42'. Sept. 19, 1892. Sometimes 30 feet long. Hangs 
only on the oaks called "green oaks " {ching k'ang) by the Chinese. This oak is 
called by the French missionaries "chene a feuilles de houx." All over the world 
in temperate and tropical regions. 



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LATITUDES AND ALTITUDES. 



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396 



MEAN MONTHLY TEMPERATURE. 



APPENDIX V. 

Mean Corrected Monthly Temperature from 
January to October, 1892. 



January 

February ... 

March 

April 

May 

June 

July 

August 

September, 
October 



7 A. M. 



F. 
+ l!2 

+I7r5 
+18:9 

+28ri 
+40:9 

+35!7 
+42!6 

+41 r? 

+50f7 
+47r3 



2 p. M. 



F. 
+30:4 
+39ro 
+39^0 
+52r4 
+6i!5 
+56!2 

+54f6 
+63f8 
+64ro 
+48ro 



7 p. M. 



F. 

+i7!7 
4-27!o 
+26!3 
+32f5 
+44f3 
+38f3 
+44:2 

+49!5 
+5o!8 

+47:5 



Mean 
Tempera- 
ture. 



F. 
+i6!4 

+27:8 

+2Sri 

+37!i 
+48f9 
+43:4 
+47.°i 
+5ir6 
+5iri 
+47!7 



INDEX. 



397 



INDEX. 



A-chia Chuang, loi, 107. 
A-chia Gegen, loi, 107, 
A-la po-sang slian, 355. 
A-lat'ang, 331, 
A-niang-pa, 366. 
A-tsu t'ang, 330. 
A-tun-tzii, 289, 336, 339. 
Adjod, 330. 

la. 329. 330, 332- 
Adornment, 68, 82, 103, 253, 259, 260, 
273, 275, 284, 288, 290, 293, 350, 

353. 357, 364- 
Adzes, 89. 
Agriculture, 5, 9, 12, 20, 27, 42, 44, 46, 

52, 53, 54, 61, 154- 
Ahon, 63, 74, 75, 80, 81, 84, 106. 
Alang gol, 141, 143. 

nor, 112, 121, 142, 143, 155, 178, 
182. 
Ala Shan, 16, 30, 31, 32, 33, 35, 37 38. 
wang, 38. 
Ya-men, 38. 
Albinos, 6. 
Alkali, 10, 17, 18, 22, 28, 39, 40, 42, 45, 

120, 181, 184. 
Allowances to lamas, 100. 
Altars, 123, 211. 
Amber, 103, 350. 
Amdo, 68, 87, 370. 

ts'o-nak, 190, 220, 221, 224, 227, 
229, 230, 243, 248. 
Amnye, 130. 

Malchin, 124, 139, 142. 

mengku, 195, 206. 
Amtun ula, 185. 

Anemarhena asphodeloides, 326. 
Ang-ti, 323. 
Ange lung, 279, 283. 
Angirtakshia, 184, 187, 188, 189, 190, 

194, 196, 214. 
Antasu kun, 82. 
Antelope, 27, 46, 47, 120, 122, 145, 187, 

194. 201, 212, 215. 
Anti- Christian movement, 57. 
Antilope gutturosa, 27, 194. 
Anya, 366, 367. 
Apple, 16, 90, 312, 363. 
Apricots. 16, 312, 335, 341, 345. 



Ara, 248, 249. 

gol, III. 

ossu, 147. 
Arabic, 13, 81. 
Arachedo, 148. 
Arbus ula, 34. 

Arik Fan-tzu, 112, 114, 121. 
Arki Panaka, 112, 143. 
Armenians, 106. 
Arms, 98. 
Arrak, 278. 
Arrows, 93, loi. 
Ashan, 28. 

Asseveration, mode of, 282. 
Atak, 244, 248. 

Habsere, 214, 215. 
Naichi, 185, 186, 188, 191. 
Atchok Panaka, 114. 
Aura Kashim, 186. 
Axes, 89. 

Ba, 344. See Bat'ang. 
Ba ch'ung ch'u 344, 347, 348. 
Ba rong-ta, 351. 
Bagolo, 353, 364, 365. 
Bagong, 320, 321. 
ch'u, 320. 
Balekun gomi, 91, no. 
Balro, 26. 
Bam-ding, 340. 

la, 339. 340. 

Bamboo, 292. 

Bamt'ang shan, 351. 

Bargu Mongols, 14. 

Barley, 83, 116, 117, 259, 276, 281, 286, 
290, 295, 306, 311, 315, 321, 325, 
326, 328, 330, 335, 347, 351, 353, 

354, 361, 363. 364, 365. 
Barma Ts'aidam, 161. 
Baron gomba, 26. 

kure, 129, 163. 
Sunit Mongols, 74. 
Ts'aidam, no, 135, 139, 147, 166. 
Basalt, 141, 181, 182. 
Bat'ang, 88, 256, 291, 300, 317, 326, 329, 
334. 336, 339, 340, 343, 344, 349, 
356, 358, 364. 368. 
Batasumdo, 281, 284, 285, 369, 
ch'u, 284. 



398 


INDEX. 




Baternoto gol, 178. 




Bumza shili, 221, 222, 251, 252. 




Bathing, 349. 




Bure, 69, 253. 




Bayan gol, 132, 162, 165, 




Burgasutai gol, 166. 




rong T'ing, 62, 74, 76, 77, 78, 84, 


Burhan bota k'utul, 165, 167. 




89, 107. 




Burial, 80. 




rong ho, 77, 78. 




Burusutai gol, 166. 




Beans, 18, 51, 62, 90, 321, 345. 




Butter, 21, 47, 66, 97, 122, 126, 130, 


185, 


Beards, 2, 75, 125, 176, 234, 326. 




234, 292, 345. 




Bears, 129, 145, 201, 202, 247, 311. 




bas reliefs, 69, 70. 




Bee hives, 328. 




Butterflies, 208. 




Beggary, 274, 279, 286, 309. 








Beginning ot spring, 60. 




Cabbages, 36, 90, 283, 295, 303, 321, 


335. 


Belgian Catholic Mission, 22, 23, 33 


> 59, 


345, 364- 




61. 




Camels, 3, 5, 13, 15, 23, 28, 43, 50, 


"9. 


Bellows, II, 163. 




139- 




Bewitching, 171. 




hair, 3, 12, 28, 44. 




Birch trees, 86, 88, 89, 104, 282, 303, 


305, 


Candles, 15, 97. 




312, 348, 350, 354, 360, 361, 


363. 


Cangue, 58, 295, 296, 309, 




364- 




Canton, 71, 85. 




bark, 88, 350, 354. 




Carpets, 41, 42. 




Birds, 120, 128, 201, 225, 265, 278, 


281, 


Carrier service, 349. 




333- 




Carts, 2, 3, 16, 17, 24, 32, 43, 45. 46. 


Biwakanag, 288. 




Cats, 265, 335. 




Black lamas, 99, loi. 




Cattle, 17, 27, 118, 122, 126, 285, 


295, 


magic, I, 71. 




355- 




Blackmailing, 94, 132. 




Cave dwelling, 7, 12, 61, 73, 106, i 


26. 


Black men, 203. 




temples, 47. 




Blacksmiths, 48, 105, 163, 164, 292, 


258. 


Cedar trees, 302. 




Black-thorn, 183, 301. 




Celery, 364. 




Blankets, 292. 




Ch'a-chia Kun, 82, 




Blue eyed Mongol, 176. 




Ch'a-tao, 4. 




Boats, 19, 38, 49, 55, 92, 343, 363. 




Ch'abche, 116. 




Bolang, 172, 173. 




Cha gomi, 91. 




Bonbo, 63, 68, 86, 88, 91, 93, 230, 


260, 


Chahar bolan, 9, 12. 




261, 262, 272, 273, 280, 282, 


283, 


Mongols, 9, 10, II, 14, 19. 




288, 289, 290, 293, 295, 335. 




Chakba, 262, 296, 328, 330, 354. 




Bonvalot, Gabriel, 138, 214, 235, 237, 


254, 


Chala, 363, 367. 




256, 263, 305, 306, 319, 369. 




Jyabo, 359, 369- 




Boots, 100. 




Ch'am ch'u, 278. 




Borax, 164. 




Chamba ch'ii-k'or-ling, 356. 




Borgaso, 26. 




Ch'amdo, 238, 251, 252, 254, 255, 


256. 


Boro balgasun, 33. 




257, 260, 261, 263, 272, 280, 


283, 


Bota, 33, 




291, 293, 294, 295, 3C0, 304, 


305, 


Bower, Capt. H., 226, 263, 291, 293, 


295, 


307, 308, 309, 3". 312, 313, 


314. 


300, 317, 319, 327, 369. 




319, 325, 348- 




Branding, 6. 




Chamdun— Draya, 319, 323, 325. 




Bread, 21, 48, 53, 83, 89, 313. 




Chamri Panaka, 102, 104, 105, 109, 


114, 


Breasts exposed, 5. 




115, 117, 127, 172, 173. 




Briar, 162, 169, 170. 




Chan-t'ou, 14, 56, 161, 193. 




Bridge, 55, 60. 271, 287, 288, 293, 


294, 


Chan-tui, 364, 369. 




300, 302, 305, 327, 348. 




Ch'ang-chi miao, 30. 




Brigands, 7, 262, 296, 297, 328, 329, 


333. 


Chang ch'i-ts'ai, 63. 




354, 362. 




Chang-chia Kun, 79, 81. 




Brokers, 89. 




Chang chong chaka, 224, 




Buckwheat, 345, 363, 364. 




Chang-kai Ying-tzu, 21. 




Buddha caves, 47. 




Chang-k'ou, 8, 9, 12. 




Buha mangna, 209, 212, 213, 214, 2 


[8. 


Chang lam, 238. 




Buhutu ula, 185, 186. 




Chang-liu shui, 48, 50. 




Bumtok Panaka, 114. 




Chang-ping Chou, 3. 





i 



INDEX. 



399 



Chang fang, 219, 251, 275. 




Ch'u-k'or fang, 94, 95. 




ch'u, 345, 246. 




Ch'umar, 1S9, 194, 195, 196, 197, 


199, 


Chargut Cho, 228. 




206, 217. 




Charms, 93, 153. 




Ch'u-marin dsun kuba, 194. 




boxes, 69, 153, 253, 


260. 


Chu-pa-lung, 343. 




Che ch'u 367. 




Ch'u-rnang, 115. 




Ch'e-rgya fang, 93. 




Chu-shih sect, 58. 




Che zangka, 356. 




Ch'u-wu doksai, 194. 




Chedo, 367. 




Chii-yung kuan, 3, 4. 




la, 365, 367. 




Chua-tzu shan, 34, 37. 




Ch'emar, 120. 




Chuan Rung, 87. 




fang, 120, 122. 




Ch'uba, 125. 




Chen-hai P'u, 67, 94, 99, 104 


. 105. 


Chung-ch'ang-tzu, 53. 




Chen-tu, 56. 




hsi, 353. 355, 356- 




Ch'eng-tu, 362, 369. 




king, 370. 




Cherry trees, 312, 341, 363. 




nyi la, 288. 




Ch'i-ling, 237. 




t'ai, 105, 107. 




Ch'i-ming-i, 4. 




tu, 349- 363- 




shan, 4. 




wei Hsien, 37, 44, 45, 48, 49 


,50, 


Chia-pa k'ou, 329. 




52. 




Chia-yii kuan, 14, 39, 69. 




Chuoma, 66, 97, 150, 204, 262, 278. 




Chiang-ka, 331, 368. 




Chura, 126, 150, 176, 204, 234, 262, 


278. 


Ch'iang-pan, 24. 




Churema, 285. 




Chib-chang ts'o, 223. 




Churn, 276. 




Ch'ibeke, 183, 184, 186, 191. 




Chyab-gong Le-pe-she-rab, 325, 328. 




Chien-ch'ang, 304, 321, 341. 




Ch'yi-chab, 271, 272, 277. 




Ch'ien-hu, 93, 94. 




Chyi-bo Ten-chin, 290. 




Ch'ien-hu Ch'eng, 94. 




City of beauty, 55. 




Chien-tzu-wan, 362. 




Clematis, 284. 




Chih-li, 9, 23, 60, 76. 




Climate, 5, 16, 21, 42, 45, 63, 70, 91, 


103, 


Chih-mu-yao, 326. 




120, 121, 131, 132, 135, 152, 


153. 


Chin Chiang ho, 209. 




158, 169, 176, 188, 191, 203, 


211, 


Chin-ch'uan, 369, 370. 




212, 218, 221, 245, 272, 280, 


2S5, 


Chin sha chiang, 209. 




295, 296, 345. 




Chin-wa Ssu 69, 87, 103. 




Coal, 3, 4, 8, 16, 36, 38, 42, 45, 48, 


49. 


China Inland Mission, 13, 42 


57, 58, 71. 


50, 53, 77. 




95, 96, 125. 




Coke, 36, 50. 




Chinese policy in Tibet, 324, 


352, 370. 


Colocanthes indica, 67. 




women in Tibet, 320, 


367. 


Columbus range, 187. 




Ch'ing fang, 95. 




Concubinage, 283, 324. 




Ch'ing-hai, i. 




Converts to Christianity, 13, 17, 22, 


23. 


Wang, 113. 




33, 34- 




Ching ho, town of, 3. 




Convicts, 58. 




Ch'ing ngai-tzu, 52. 




Cooking, 150, 268. 




shan, 12, 15. 




stove, II, 24, 86, 123. 




-shih pao, 108. 




utensils, 98. 




-shui Kun, 82. 




Cooper, T. T., 336. 




-f u yahu, 75. 




Copper, 193, 341, 358. 




Chingo, 261, 265, 272. 




Coracles, 363. 




Chiringols, 106. 




Coral, 69, 103, 253, 273, 284. 




Ch'iung-chou, 126, 372. 




Cordyceps sinensis, 361. 




Cholera, 369. 




Cornelian, 103, 273. 




Cho-mu ch'uan, 107. 




Cotton, 90, 285. 




Chong Kum kul, 171. 




cloth, 100, 105. 




Ch'orten, 271. 




Courier service, 349. 




Christianity, 61, 190. 




Crossoptilons, 299, 333, 




Ch'uan, 107. 




Crows, 1 28, 141, 333. 




Chu-chia Panaka, I14, I19, 122, 124. 


Cruppers, 104. 




Ch'u-k'a, 78. 




Cucumbers, 345, 364, 





400 



INDEX. 



Currants, 33, 312. 

Currency, 253, 259, 274, 275, 310, 347, 

Cymbals, 69, 336. 

Dabachen, 106. 
Dabesu gobi, 109. 

nor, 116, 119. 
Dabje Panaka, 114. 
Daldy, 29, 106. 
Dam Sok Mongols, 157, 158. 
Damaru, 86. 

Dancing, 91, 92, 336, 338, 341. 
Dang ch'u, 251, 252, 257, 262, 265, 279. 

la, 158, 196, 209, 214, 215, 217, 
218, 219, 220, 221, 224, 225, 
245, 24S, 252, 255. 
Darjeelmg, 179, 257. 
Dasho, 350, 351. 

la, 350. 
Dawo, 371. 
Daza, 87. 

Deba, 158, 260, 334. 
Deba djong, 231, 233, 239, 256, 273, 287, 

289, 293, 302, 340. 
Dedecken, Mr. 257. 
Deer, 177. 

horns, 276. 
Deformities, 6, 291, 310, 328. 
Degrees conferred on lamas, 100. 
Derben chin, 132. 
Derge, 116, 255, 259, 274, 311, 312, 319, 

333. 348, 358, 371. 
Din-yuan-ing, 38. 
Ding-hu, 36. 
Dinsin obo, 178. 

Dispelling storms, 197, 198, 201, 202. 
Divination, 198. 
Djassak Mongols, 29. 
Djaya, 94. 

Djin-k'ang ding, 341, 342. 
Djong-pdn, 294, 295. 
Djung rong tranka, 312. 
Djungar Mongols, 19, 24, 29. 

T'a, 20, 29. 
Do-bong, 92. 
Do fang, 115. 
Dogs, 68, 107, 265, 335. 
Doierite, 77. 
Donkeys, 24, 105, 122. 
Doors, loi. 
Do-rnirta, iii. 
Dowry, 156. 

Drajya lamo la, 267, 268, 272. 
Drama la, 320. 
Drapo, 88. 
Draya, 311, 319, 3?o, 323, 324, 325, 327, 

328, 331, 333. 
Dre ch'u, 209, 314, 329, 335, 341, 342. 

343. 344. 363- 



Dre ch'u rabden, i, 209. 

Dre la, 298, 299, 301. 

(of Ch'amdo), 312. 

Dress, 5, 6, 10, 57, 68, 69, 79, 80, 82, 103, 
234, 236, 240, 241, 253, 256, 260, 
273. 290, 306, 330, 340, 346, 364, 

Dried fish, 65, 334. 
fruit, 262. 
meat, 242, 262. 

Drifting sands [liu sha), 46, 49, 50. 

Drinking, 10, 314. 

Drohe la, 284, 285. 

Droima nam-ts'o, 190. 

Drought, 10, 

Drubanang, 329, 343. 

Drums, 56, 57, 59. 336. 

Drupa, 243, 285, 302, 335, 35T, 358, 371. 

Dsun Ts'aidam, 157, 166, 167, 169, 170. 

Ducks, 46, 142. 

Dugei, 18. 

Dugus, 18. 

Dulan-kuo, no, 113, 114, 123, 127, 138. 

Dung in architecture, 248. 

Dungans, 36. 

Dungbure, 200, 205, 208, 209, 212, 217. 

Dunzsu, 89. 

During ula, 140, 141, 146. 

Dwarfs, 291. 

Dyes, 41, 136, 171, 293, 350. 

Dykes, 18. 

Dzd, 275. 

Dzang ch'ere, 267. 

Dzo la, 322, 332. 

Dzo-mo la, 359. 

Dzuha ula, 187, 192. 

Dzurken ula, 219. 

nor, 219. 

Eagles, 141, 333. 

Earrings, 19, 236, 259, 284, 288, 290, 317, 

341, 364. 
Edelweiss, 192, 306. 
Edjong, 229. 

Eggs, 48, 303, 320, 328, 334, 360. 
Eken Habsere, 215, 217, 218. 

Naichi, 185, 186, 187, 190. 
Elders of lamasery, 99. 
Elephant, 298. 

teeth, 64. 
Elesu nor, 197, 199. 
Eleut Mongols, 30. 112, 113, 157. 
Elk horns, 370. 
Emnik ula, 165, 169. 
Erh-lang-wan, 353. 
Erh Ta-jen ying-lzu, 10. 
Erh-tzu tien, 37. 
Erhte, 118. 

ch'uk'a, 117. 

shan, 117. 



INDEX. 



401 



Erosion, 116, 118, 122, 140. 
Eu-ling-trin or O-ling-tan, 9. 
Eyeshades, 75. 

Factories, 41, 42, 48, 60. 

Fairy caves, 7. 

False hair, 80. 

Famine, 23, 25, 32, 33. 

Fan-tzu, 74, 76, 82, 83, 89, 92, 94, 103. 

Farsi, 14. 

Feet of Chinese women, 5, 12, 59, 74, 75, 

79- 
Fei hsia, 109. 

Fei-tzii ch'uan, 84, 85, 87, 90. 
Fencing, 70. 
Feng Ch'eng, 8. 
Feng fei ling, 108, in. 
Ferns, 305, 341. 
Ferry, 92, 315, 316, 343, 363. 
Festivals, 53, 58, 59, 60, 68, 231, 280, 

336, 349. 
Feuds, 84, 85, 105. 
Fire making, 35. 

signals, 8. 
Fir trees, 297, 298, 299, 312. 
First fruit offerings, 86. 
Fish, 65, 143, 347. 

nets, 65. 
Flies, 282. 
Flints, 222. 

Flour, 48, 70, 97, 126, 276, 292. 
Flowers, 42, 192, 210, 215, 267, 315, 
Flutes, 69, 332. 
Fo t'ung, 47. 
Food, 19, 20, 40, 47, 48, 53, 65, 83, 86, 

89- 90. 97, 119. 150, 169, 170, 235, 

237, 241, 242, 262, 269, 274, 278, 

282, 292, 312, 338, 342, 345. 
Footprint on stone, 69. 
Fortune telling, 69. 

Fowls, 265, 331, 334, 335, 342, 360, 361. 
Fruit, 312, 313, 332, 335, 340, 341, 345. 
Fu-erh tien, 33. 
Fuel, 21, 247, 248. 
Fu-ming Fu, 8, 9, 12. 

Gaga, 323. 
Gam, 323. 

la, 323, 325. 
Gambling, 13. 
Game laws, 296, 309. 
Gara la, 354, 355. 

pen sum, 355. 
Garing Chho, 228. 
Garlic, 36. 
Garters, 248, 276. 

Gart'ok, 303, 319, 330, 331, 333, 334, 
336, 337, 369- 



Ge, 311, 312, 315. 

Ge-dun-drub, 68. 

Ge-ho-wa or Ai-ho-wa, 9. 

Geese, 26, 142, 146, 196, 197, 

Gekor lamas, 99. 

Gela, 283. 

Gelupa sect, 87, 91, loi, 261, 283, 287, 

294, 334- 
Gentse, 277. 
Gesar, 130, 165. 
Ginseng, 56. 
Glaciers, 220. 

Glycyrrhiza uralensis, 32. 
Gneiss, 27, 37, 50, 77, 84, 92, 
Goats, 12, 15, 28, 265, 288, 
God of rain, 8. 

T'ai-sui, 59. 
wine, 5. 
Goitre, 291, 315, 326. 
Gold, 61, 73, 115, 116, 187, 261, 274, 276, 
357, 359, 360. 
washing, 73, 360, 361. 
Golmot, 171, 174, 184. 

nor, 171. 
Golok, 113, 124, 125, 152, 155, 175, 182, 

186, 188, 190, 196, 206, 211, 212, 

259, 273, 278. 
Gomba soba, 109, 157. 
Gomi fang, 91, no. 

Wahon, 91, no. 
Gona Panaka, 114. 
Gongma Ts'aidam, i6r. 
Gonwa Panaka, 114. 
Gooseberry, 293, 305, 312. 
Gopa, 67, 69, 87, 125. 
Gork, 115. 
Gorkas, 304, 371. 
Gouchi Khan, 112. 
Granite, 27, 37, 79, 84, 85, 92, 122, 125, 

128, 162, 191, 192, 193, 220, 260, 

261, 265, 350, 355, 367. 
Grapes, 16, 335, 345. 
Great Wall, i, 8, 23, 37, 39, 48, 49, 52, 

60, 94. 
Greyhounds, 13. 
Grist mills, 24, 77. 
Guh'u, 337, 339. 
Gumdo, 328. 
Gun ch'u, 348, 349. 
Gunegon gomba, 293. 
Gunga nor, 118, 121. 
Gunt'ok gomba, 325. 
Gura, 342. 
Gurbu-gunznga mountains, 182, 183, 

Ha-la hu-to ying, 109. 

Hail, 70, 190, 196, 203, 204, 207, 208, 

212, 215, 216, 220, 229, 241, 243, 

252, 262. 



402 



INDEX. 



Hair, 243, 269, 327, 

dressing, 10, 19, 75, 79, 157, 234, 
260, 265, 269, 284, 346, 350, 

353. 357. 358. 361. 364. 
Hajir, 178, 179, 186, 187, 189, 214. 
Halang ossu mengku, 178, 183. 
Halha Mongols, 6, 180, 192. 
Hamar hosho, 27. 
Hami, 14. 
Hamorok, 33. 
Han-ching ling, 9. 
Han-chung Fu, 62, 76, 350. 
Han ma-nao, 103. 
Handkerchiefs, 117, 119, 124. 
Hang-kai ti, 28. 

Hangkin Mongols, 28, 29, 30, 31. 
Hara-ma-ku, 33, 
Hara nor, 191. 
Harchimba, 159. 
Hares, 46, 128, 131, 141, 201, 203, 210, 

219, 278, 311. 
Harmak, 33, 172, 204. 
Hashken k'utul, 178. 
Hato, 118, 119. 

Lohe, jo, 21. 
Hats, 57, 80, 82, 108, 234, 241, 253, 256, 

260, 291, 306. 
Hatsapji nameha, 178. 
Hautboys, 69, 336. 
Hawks, 13, 141. 
Hazel nuts, 59. 
Headdress, 79, 82, 293, 350, 357, 358. 

of criminal exposed, 7, 52, 90, 
Hei Ch'eng, 77. 
Hei ho, 12, 30. 
Hemp, 42, 90, 363. 
seed oil, 32, 
Hides, 3, 12, 26, 51, 104, 276. 
Hire nor 10. 
Ho Chou, 60, 74. 
Ho-k'ou, 12, 18, 19, 20, 21, 25, 36, 38, 

39. 47. 
(of Hasten! Tibet), 349, 363. 
364, 368. 
Ho-k'ou ti, 28, 29. 
Ho-kuai-tzu, 36, 37. 
Ho lai liu, 25, 26. 
Ho-nan, 57. 
Ho-tien, 166. 
Ho tsui-tzu, 61, 62. 
Ho tung, 39. 
Hobbles, 98, 108. 
Holly-leaved oaks, 332, 333, 337^ 341, 

348, 350. 360, 361, 363, 364. 
Hondo la, 339. 
Honey, 328. 
Honsang Panaka, 114. 
Hops, 59. 
Hor ch'u, 359. 



Hor ch'u-k'a, 359. 

Horba, 184, 257, 259, 280, 293. 

Horgo Deba, 259, 260, 261, 271, 274, 276, 
290. 

Horgon gol, 178. 

Hornblende, 37. 

Horse flesh eaten, 36. 

Hot springs, 129, 244, 349. 

Hotun jeli, 38. 

Hou-tao-sha, 9. 

Houses, 10, 19, 24, 26, 30, 32, 34, 45, 73, 
83, 86, loi, 116, 268, 271, 276, 282, 
288, 294, 315, 323, 342, 358, 359, 
360, 363, 365. 

Houstai, II. 

Hsi-an Fu, 14, 15, 18, 60. 

Hsi-fan, 65, 68, 70, 76, 84, 87, 91, 117. 

Hsi-feng k'ou, 8. 

Hsi ho, 61, 63. 

Hsi Kung, 25, 26, 29. 

Hsi-ning Amban, i, 78, 99, loi, 113, 115, 
116, 172, 179, 188. 
Fu, 14, 19, 43, 53, 54, 56, 59, 
60, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 71, 
75, 84, 88, 90, 94, 95, 96, 
98, loi, 103, 108, no, 121, 
125, 179, 240, 249, 350, 
372. 
ho, 61, 109. 

Hsi Olo, 361. 

Hsi shan, 37, 38, 39, 40, 42, 43, 44, 45, 
46, 47. See also Alashan. 

Hsi Wang, 30. 

Hsia ying-lzu, 39. 

Hsiang-fang, 57, 62, 66, 71. 

Hsiao chao, 15. 

Hsiao Hei ho, 12, 

Hsiao ho, 363. 

Hsiao hsia, 63, 64. 

Hsiao miao-tzu, 27. 

Hsiao nor, 22, 39. 

Hsiao pa-ch'ung, 348, 349. 

Hsiao pa-tzu, 9. 

Hsieh-chia, 89, 93, 94, 109, 161. 

Hsin chao, 21. 

Hsin Ch'eng, 61, 63. 

of Kuei hua Ch'eng, 13. 

Hsin-ping-k'ou, 8. 

Hsin-tseng P'u, 105. 

Hsiian-hua Fu, 4, 5. 

Hsiieh lien, 67, 323. 

Hsiin-hua T'ing, 78, 89. 

Hu-lu-shih t'ai, 11. 

Hua Hsien, 23. 

Huai-lai Hsien, 4. 

Huang-ch'i chiao, 39. 

Huang Fan-tzu, 249. 

Huang ho (Yellow River), 26, 38, 90, 114. 

Huang lamas' country, 370. 



INDEX. 



403 



Huang-t'u kang, 355. 

Huang yang, 27, 46, 120, 194, 199, 215. 

Hue, Abbe, 9, 13, 15, 16, 23, 32, 38, 44, 

48, 50, 52, 69, 94, 95. 
Huchesha Ponbo, 296. 
Huei-huei, 14, 43, 74, 75, 83. See also 

Mohammedans. 
Hui Hsien, 56, 59. 
Huito Tola gol, 174. 
Hultu, 147. 
Hun ho, 5. 

Hung-mao pan-tao pass, 108, no. 
Hung mao-tzu rebels, 2. 
Huo ch'u, 359. 
Huo shao-po, 359. 
Husetan river, 21. 
Husnabad, 55. 
Huyuyung, 116, 118, 119, 120, 121, 123, 

125, 136. 

I Ch'in-ch'ai, 254, 371. 

I ch'u, 254, 277, 278, 279, 280, 303. 

I-ma-mu chuang, 79, 81, 82, 362. 

I-tiao shan, 52. 

1 wan ch'iian, 50. 

Igneous rocks, 12, 46, 122. 

Ike chao league, 19. 

Ike gol, 135, 148, 153, 162. 

Ike tale nameha, 173. 

Ilchi, 59. 

Images of Buddha, 15, 47. 

Im&k, 81. 

Imam, 79. 

Imperial gifts, 109, 113, 159, 260. 

In shan, 15. 

Incense, 9, 67, 123, 130, 132, 19S, 201, 

202, 262. 
India, 14, 59, 85, 236, 238. 
Interference with travel, 138, 188, 231, 

233. 235, 236, 239, 241, 251, 256, 

295. 305, 307. 319- 
Ipi la, 319, 320. 
Iris, 210. 

Iron, 193, 302, 303, 330. 
Irrigation, 13, 20, 25, 28, 29, 30, 31, 35, 

39. 42, 43, 44> 45. 48, 49. 52, 53, 87, 

89, 133. 154. 170, 173- 
Itinerant singer, 300. 
Ivory, 253. 

Ja lam, 257, 263, 277, 279, 291. 

Jalang, 160. 

Jambut'ong, 355. 

Jara ri, 365. 

Jarang gomba, 88. 

Jehol, I, 2. 

Jewels, 64, 103, 253. 

Jew's-harp, 338, 339, 341. 

Ji-wa, 99. 



Jih Yueh shan, in. 

Jingis Khan, 29, 34, 43. 

Jujube, 44, 90, 97. 

Jung, 56. 

Juniper trees, 27, 68, 87, 123, 
280, 283, 297, 298, 299, 
312, 322, 334, 337, 341, 

Jyabo zamba, 308. 

Jya-de, 244, 248, 249, 252, 253, 
257. 259, 560, 266, 270, 
289, 296, 297, 309, 340, 

Jya lung, 329. 

Jya-is'ug k'ang, 309, 311. 

Jyakundo, 58, 66, 135, 136, 
252, 255, 257, 259, 262, 
273. 276, 277, 36S. 

Jyama Ngul ch'u, 269, 277. 

Jyamba truku, 325. 



132, 148, 
304, 310, 
348, 354. 

254, 255, 
275, 288, 
346, 371. 



137, 153, 
265, 267, 



Ka Gomi, 91. 

Ka-tzu Kun, 77, 79, 80, 81, 82. 

Kaba talen, 117, 118. 

Kado gol, 140, 143, 146. 

Kajang, 92, 93, 94. 

Kaji gomba, 366. 

la, 365. 366. 
Kalgan, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 53. 
Kalidtum gracile, 162. 
Kalmuk, 6, 30. 
K'amba, i, 67, 87, 124, 198, 229, 346. 

djong, 190. 
K'amdo, 96, 153, 331. 
Kan-chou, 44, 52, 59, 71. 
Kan hai-tzu, 355. 
Kan-su, i, 7, 15, 19, 29, 32, 42, 44, 46, 

6i, 70, 73, 94. 118. 
Kan t'ang-tzu, 50. 
Kan-tu, 77, 78, 82. 
Kandjur, 150, 160. 
K'ang Ch'eng, 84. 
K'ang-hsi, the Emperor, 14, 42, 105, 
Kangsa-Kas, 171, 187, 192. 
K'angsar, 163. 
Kang-tzu tien, 33, 34, 38. 
Kano k'utui, 181, 182. 
K'anpo, 134, 138, 359. 
Kanze, 137, 301, 330, 348, 368. 
Kao-chia chuang, 85. 
Kao-lan Hsien, 60. 
Kao miao-tzu, 62, 63. 
Kar Pai-hu, 264, 290. 
Kar fang, 112. 
Kara k'utui gol, 185. 
Kara muren, 55. 
Kara-sai, 181. 
Kara Tangutans, 89. 
Karawan, 81. 

Kargan, 77, 78, 82, 83, 84. 
Karmat'ang, 121, 175. 



404 



INDEX. 



Karsa, i6i, 171, 196. 


Kukuse, 128(1 




K'arwa, loi, 107. 


Kumbum, 65, 67, 68, 87, 88, 99, 


100, 


Kas nor, 171. 


loi, ro3, 107, 136, 251. 




Kashgar, 14, 39, 59, 291. 


Kun, 76, 77, 80, 81. 




Kashmir, 56, 263. 


Kun-lun, 127, 132. 




K'atag, 134, 138, 154, 239, 258, 291. 


Kundulung, 25. 




Kawa obo, 141, 142, 145, 146. 


Kung Dzassak Mongols, 109. 




Ke ch'u, 297, 298, 299, 300, 302. 


Kung-kuan, 303, 317, 320, 328, 


333, 


Ken-jya la, 329. 


334, 337, 341, 344, 349, 35o, 


351. 


Keten gol, 221, 223. 


354. See 3\soJya-ts'ug-k'ang 




Keter gun, 132. 


Kung-la, 342. 




Khantus, 78. 


Kung miao, 26. 




Khoshote Mongols, 112. 


Kungka ri, 365. 




Khun-mo, 87. 


Kungsa, 322, 323. 




Khyrma Baron Dzassak, 163. 


Kung-tzu-ting, 342. 




Kiln, 365, 366. 


Kuo-shili, 173. 




Kinda, 312, 314. 


K'ur-shing, 183, 289. 




Knives, 104, 259, 330. 


Kurban Habsere, 215. 




Koko k'utul ot Shang, 131. 


Naichi, 174, 185, 187. 




the Ts'aidam, 148. 


Tara, 115. 




Koko nor, 65, 71, 94, 102, 109, iii, 112, 


Kurebori, 186, 187. 




113, 114, 115, 117, 127, 143, 158, 


Kuri Panaka, 114. 




289. 


Kurim ceremony, 298. 




Koko ossu, 128. 


Kurtatnba, 298. 




Koko se, 141. 


Kuzupchi sands, 27. 




Koko-shili, 193, 195, 199, 200, 201, 203, 






217. 


La-cha shan, 77. 




Koko torn k'utul, 183. 


La-chih yahu, 92, 94, loS. 




Kokuse gol, 143. 


La ch'u, 285. 




Ko-lao huei, Secret society of, 2. 


La-je la, 92, 94. 




Kolinjo, 21. 


La-ma-ya, 353. 




Kondjink'a, 342. 


La-mo shan-ken, 78. 




Konsa Panaka, 114. 


La-sung ch'u, 327. 




Kopa, 87. 


Labrang gomba, 66, 74,, 87, 117, 


184, 


Koran, 63, 81. 


273- 




Korea, 53, 56. 


Lab-ts'e, 92, 296, 312. See also obo. 


Korluk Ts'aidam, 138, 169, 172, 177, 178. 


Ladak, 257. 




Kotowing, 102. 


Lagong, 303, 304, 305, 308, 309, 


3". 


Ku-chia Panaka, 114. 


369- 




Ku la, 360. 


Lah'a, 290, 293. 




Ku-liieh, 9. 


Lam-rim ch'en-po, the, 99. 




Ku-lung shan, 319. 


La-ma, 309, 311. 




Ku-shu, 337. 


ch'u, 310. 




Kua-tzU, 57. 


Lama, loi, 164, 167, 203, 295, 309. 




Kuan-shong k'utur, 193, 194, 195, 196,215. 


birds, 124. 




Kuan-ti, the god of war, 130, 165, 324, 


colleges, 99, 100. 




334, 340, 357, 359- See also Gesar. 


dances, 336. 




Kuan-t'i, 35, 38. 


miao, 6. 




Kuan-wu, 70. 


officials, 99, 100. 




Kuang-wei, 45, 46. 


trading, 100, 345, 357. 




Kuar-sotsang Panaka, 114. 


Lamasery, 10, 15, 26, 30, 87, 88, 90 


, 95, 


Kubche ula, 187. 


99, loo, loi. 280, 299. 




Kuei-hua Ch'eng, i, 2, 6, 7, 9, 12, 13, 16, 


Lamaya, 348. 




17, 18, 21, 24, 26, 30, 95, 97, 152, 


Lan-chou Fu, i, 15, 19, 42, 43, 45 


,48. 


179. 


51, 53,55,57,58,59,61,65, 70 


, 71, 


Kuei-te T'ing, 58, 71, 84, 85, 88, 89, 91, 


90- 95, 96, 125- 




92, 93. 105, 108, no, 115, 133, 136, 


Lan-tsan chiang, 299. 




303- 


Land slide, 77. 




Kuei-yueh-t'u, 11. 


Lang shan, 15, 28. 





INDEX. 



405 



Language, 51, 62, 65, 81, 82, 8; 


i. 90. 


106, 


Lit'ang golo, 361. 




107, 158, 160, 243, 251, 


255, 


270, 


zamba, 351. 




304, 310, 313, 332, 355. 






Liu-pan, 4. 




Laniba, 362, 363. 






Liu-t'un-tzu, 54. 




Lanterns, feast of, 65, 69, 70. 






Lizards, 212. 




Lao-hu shan, 117, 






Lo-chia tsung, 327. 




Lar-rgyad, 99. 






Lo-lo, 57> 71- 




Lar fang, 331, 332, 






Ch'eng, 57, 71. 




Larego. 238, 252, 261. 






Loan-shih chiao, 360. 




Larks, 206, 221, 265. 






Lob nor, 26, 144, 149, 166, 175, 192. 




Lasiagrostis splendens, 162. 






Loess, 5, 7, 12, 18, 20, 37, 46, 50, 53 


,54, 


Latsa, 354, 355. 






55, 62, 73, 75, 76, 77, 79, 82, 83, 84, 


Latsang Khan, 365. 






92, 116, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 


129, 


Latse la, 337. 






131, 140, 141, 181, 182, 322. 




Le ch'u, 329. 






Lu-ho fang, 334. 




Leather, 6, 274, 341, 358, 371, 






Lu-sha-erh, 65. See Lusar. 




Legends, 136, 148, 149, 150. 






Luma la, 320. 




Lei-wu-ch'i, 300. 






Lung-sheng chuang, 9. 




Len ch'u, 276, 277, 303. 






Lung-ta, 93, 153, 323. 




Length of step, 222. 






Lung-tung ch'u, 320. 




Leopards, 151, 311, 326. 






Lung Wang, 8. 




Lk'a k'ang, 305. 






Lusar, 32, 54, 58, 59, 65, 70, 73, 75, 


76, 


Lh'amdun, 339, 340, 349. 






88, 90, 93, 94, 95, 96, 106, 107, 


108, 


Lh'asa, i, 58, 67, 69, 95, roo. 


121, 


125, 


122, 125, 131, 198. 




135. 137. 151. 177. 187, 


230, 


235, 


Lying, III, 327. 




239, 247, 249, 254, 256 


257, 


273. 


Lynx, 68. 




280, 283, 286, 297, 302 


317, 


325. 






331. 371. 372. 






Ma ch'u, 113. 




Amban, 179, 236, 237, 


254. 


256, 


Ma h'are Panaka, 113, 115. 




275. 






Ma harka, 78. 




roads to, 192. 






Ma-ka-tu, 9. 




Lh'o-rong djong, 293, 294. 






Ma-kai-chung, 363. 




Li-chia chuang, 85. 






Ma-ku-yen, 59. 




Li-chia hsia, 85. 






Ma la, 284, 285. 




Li-chiang Fu, 339. 






Ma Ming-ching, 85. 




Li ch'u, 356. 






Ma-Nya ch'uk'a, 365. 




Li ch'uan, 41. 






Ma tsurka, 78. 




Li ch'un, 60. 






Ma Wang miao, 9. 




Li-fan Yuan, 20, 29. 






Magicians, 197, 198, 201, 202, 298, 




Li-k'ang P'u, 40. 






Magong, 328. 




Li K'o-yung, 62. 






Magpies, 131, 141, 333. 




Li-shu, 333. 






Maha, 88. 




Li-su tribes, 370. 






Mahtus, 78. 




Li ts'u, 100. 






Maize, 364. 




Liang Chou, 33, 51, 52, 56, 59, 


60. 




Maja la, 277. 




Liao-tung, 103. 






Man-tzu 73. 




Liarchagan lake, 224. 






Manchus, 6, 13, 135, 136. 




Licorice, 31, 32, 34, 136. 






Mang la, 351. 




Lien-pi yao-tzu, 20. 






Mang-Ii, 341. 




Lighting houses, 341. 






Mani stones, 206, 280. 




Likin, 8, 68, 76, T08. 






Manikins warding off hail, 70. 




LimcBa peregra, 143. 






Mantzu, 9, 38. 




Limestone, 4, 45, 122, 132, 200 


215, 


218, 


Maple trees, 303, 363, 364. 




219, 220, 226, 227, 243, 


266, 


267, 


knot cups, 365. 




270, 276, 277, 278, 280, 


294, 


299. 


Mar-K'ams, 331, 337, 339, 340. 




309, 310, 320. 






Mar-k'uar, 120. 




Lingyang, 199. 






Marco Polo mountains, 187. 




Lit'ang, 88, 293, 348, 349, 351, 


353. 


354. 


Marmot, 221, 242, 311. 




355, 368, 369- 






Marriage, 155, 156, 164. 





4o6 



INDEX. 



Matchlocks, 84, 109, 196, 241, 274, 328, 


Muri Wahon, 102, 104, 105, 120, 132 




330. 


Muring Wang, 113. 




Me-tar, 9. 


Murrain, 64, 118, 134, 145, 153. 




Medicine, 10, 33, 43, 67, 104, 139, 323. 


Murus, 206, 207, 209, 213, 214, 215, 


217, 


Medina, 14, 74. 


218, 219. 




Medo la, 278. 


Mushroom, 266, 269, 278, 334. 




Meester, Mr. de, 55, 56, 57, 58. 


Musk, 71, 90, 268, 276, 283, 326, 


334. 


Mekka, 13, 74, 84. 


335, 348, 370. 




Meli, 370. 


Mussot, Mr. I'Abbe, 368, 369, 372. 




Melons, 14, 61, 90. 


Myricaria prostraia, 186. 




Meng-pu, 327. 


Mystic syllables, 67, 280. 




Mer djong, 261, 263, 271, 276, 291, 294, 






295, 300. 


Na-chia Panaka, 104, 114, 115, 122, 


124, 


Metamorphic rocks, 122. 


125, 127. 




Migrations of Tibetans, 113, 143, 158. 


Nd ch'ang, 278, 292, 314, 315, 316 




Milk, 235, 328. 


Na-chung gomba, 298. 




Millet, 19, 39, 77, 89, 90, 343, 345, 364. 


Na-wa-lu, 367, 




Ming-cheng-ssu, 359. See also Chala and 


Nada, 353, 361, 365. 




Ta-chien-lu. 


Nagch'uk'a, r, 58, 138, 157, 184, 


190, 


Miri, 272, 274, 275, 276. 


196, 212, 221, 229, 234, 236, 


237. 


Mirka Panaka, 114. 


238, 240, 244, 247, 249, 251, 


252, 


Miser, 294. 


253. 254, 255. 256, 263, 265, 29 


I, 


Missionaries, 6, 13, 17, 55, 57, 61, 109, 


Nai ch'u, 254. 




138, 190, 313, 327, 347, 352, 366, 


Naichi daban, 185, 187, 189. 




368, 369, 372. 


Naichi gol, 155, 171, 174, 175, 178, 


179. 


Mite la, 316. 


180, 181, 182, 183, 185, ,188, 


194, 


Mizar, 170. 


221, 224, 249, 268. 




Mo ch'u, 284. 


Naichi mengku, 183. 




Mo-lung gung la, 301. 


Naktsang, 254, 263, 273. 




Mohammedans, 7, 13, 14, 16, 33, 40, 42, 


Namch'utola muren, 200, 203, 204, 


205, 


48, 58, 62, 63, 70, 74, 76, 78, 81, 83, 


208, 217. 




89, 102, 109, 117, 222. 


Namchutu ulan muren, 189, 196. 




Mongols, 3, 6, 9, II, 19, 33, 64, 65, 66, 


Names, 23, 81, 107, 115, 178, 193. 




76, 87, 112, 121, 132, 133, 149, 158, 


Namru, 230, 231, 232, 234, 235, 239, 


245, 


166, 176, 180. 


252, 253. 




Monsoon, 245. 


ts'o, 231. 




Morals, 136, 156, 346. 


Namts'o la, 310. 




Morjia, 109. 


Nan ch'uan, 94. 




Mortuary customs, 80, 86, 152. 


Nan-k'ou, 3. 




Mosque, 74, 76, 78, 105. 


Nan men, 94. 




Mosquitoes, 139. 171, I73, 178, 183, 223, 


Nan shan, 73, 75, 76, 92. 




282. 


Nan-tun, 339. 




Moss, 193, 311, 348. 


Nang-ssu-to, 77. 




Moto shan, 321. 


Nanyi la, 296. 




Mourning, 79. 


Nar Pai-hu, 264, 290, 292. 




Mt. Djoma, 214. 


Narta Panaka, 114, 119. 




Mt. Dorsi, 214. 


Nashe, 367. 




Mt. Samden khama, 254. 


Nashe ch'u, 265, 266, 267, 270, 278. 




Mud springs, 216. 


Needle cases, 242, 259. 




Muktsi Soloma, 155. 


Nemen Kun, 82. 




Mulberry tree, 363. 


Nepaul, 53, 59, 304, 310. 




Mules, 3, 54, 59, 62, 71, 98, 99, 102, 103, 


New Year, 53, 54, 56. 




104, 128, 204, 280, 355. 


Ni ch'u, 351, 353- 




Muinin, 81. 


Ning-hsia Fu, 14, 15, 16, 19, 38, 40 


,42, 


Munni ula, 16, 27. 


43, 45, 48, 51, 105- 




Munta Kun, 82. 


Nitraria schoberii, 33. 




Murder, 172. 


Niu-hsin yahu, 75. 




Muri ch'u, 122, 123, 131. 


Nomoron gol, 170. 




la 123, 124, 125. 


hutun, 157, 158, 170. 





INDEX. 



407 



Noshe la, 284. 
Noyen hung, 133. 
Numerals, 64, 161, 162. 
Nuyi, 315. 
Nya ch'u, 301, 363, 364. 

k'a, 348, 349, 358, 359, 363. 
Nya rong, 364, 369. 
Nyam-ts'o, 137. 
Nyam-ts'o Pur-dung, 91, 136, 160, 261, 

295- 
Nyerpa, 236, 237, 256, 261. 
Nyewa. 330, 331. 
Nyima sect, 235, 299. 
Nyul-chan t'onbo, 186. 
Nyulda, 302, 303, 305, 307. 

O-Iun-to, 328. 

O-sung, 303, 321, 326, 335, 358. 

Oak tree, 332, 342. 

Oats, 311, 315, 335, 360. 

Obo, 9, 10, 37, 92, 93, 322. 

Odontala, 26. 

Offerings to gods, 86. 

Officials, 122, 159, 160, 196, 345, 356. 

Oil, 19. 

Oim, 135, 136, 139. 

k'utul, 148. 
Om ch'u, 297, 311, 312, 313, 314, 316, 

325. 327, 328, 331. 
Om-yong, 261. 
Ombo ch'u, 325, 327, 
Onghin oola, 16. 
Onions, 90, 197, 204, 206, 215, 222, 246, 

295. 303. 345, 364- 
Opium, 7, 10, II, 13, 14, 28, 56. 
Orat Mongols, 25, 28, 29, 30. 
Ordos, 14, 23, 25, 33, 36, 46, 106. 

Mongols, 19, 29. 
Orondeshi, 34. 
Orongo antelope, 187, 194, 196, 197, 199, 

210, 212, 215. See a.\so liTig yang. 
Orongshe, 365. 

ch'u, 363, 364. 
Ottok Mongols, 29, 33. 
Outfit, 70, 71, 73, 97, 98. 
Ovis poll, 126, 128, 151, 187, 188, 190. 

See also pan yang. 
Ox hide water jars, 172. 

Pa-kiao-Iu, 364. 

Pa-lung-ta, 351. 

Pack-saddles, 60, 98, 104., 

Pai ma ssu, 64. 

Pan yang, 126. 

Panaka, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 124, 127, 

129, 346. 
Panakasum, 58, 76, 91, 102, 108, II2, 

113, 211, 309. 
Panch'en rinpoch'e, 134, 158, 255. 



Pang-mu, 340. 

Pao-chia chic, 94. 

Pao t'u, 14, 15, 16, 19, 23, 25, 26, 27, 36, 

38, 39, 43. 
shan, 25. 
Pao-tun, 316. 
P'apa Lh'a, 307, 313. 
Paper, 42. 
Parroquet, 364. 
Partridge, 9, 26, 31, 120, 141, 146, ]85, 

278, 314. 
Passport, I, 108, 179, 236, 252, 304. 
Pay of soldiers, 317, 345. 
Pe-chia Fo-yeh, loi, 107. 
Peaches, 16, 90, 331, 335, 345. 
Peacock feathers, 67. 
Pears, 90, 340, 341, 345. 
Peas, 83, 90, 293, 295, 321, 345. 
Pei-pung-tzii, 304. 

Pei-t'ou {Ursa Major), worship of, 6. 
Peking, I, 2, 3, 5, 6, 13, 14, 15, 18, 57, 

158. 
Pene-ringu, 293. 
Peng-cha-mu, 349. 

Peppers, 292, 304, 342, 343, 345, 364. 
Pere Tibetans, 253, 254, 255, 256, 257, 

258, 261. 
Pheasants, 26, 27, 31, 46, 103, 174, 311, 

360. 
Philadelphus coronarius, 68. 
Photographing, 88, 133, 265. 
Pichan, 56. 
Pien ch'en^, 60. 
Pien-niu, 118. 

Pigeons, 103, 124, 265, 278, 333, 342, 
Pigs, 318, 334, 335, 342, 361. 
Pilchetai, 25. 

Pilgrims, 174, 180, 183, 278, 2S9. 
Pine trees, 86, 88, 272, 297, 299, 301, 

302, 305, 309, 310, 312, 332, 333, 

334, 337, 339, 34i, 348, 350, 351, 

353, 354, 360, 361, 363, 364. 
Ping-ch'ing Wang, 2. 
Ping-fan ho, 63. 

Hsien, 51, 52, 53, 57. 
Ping-lo Hsien, 39, 40, 44. 
Pitch-pine, 341. 
Planorbis albus, 143. 
Plough, 170, 293. 
Plum trees, 312. 
Po ch'u, 284, 289, 297. 
Po-jya la, 325, 327, 329, 
Po la, 284, 285. 

ga, 284. 
Po-lang-kung shan, 361. 
Po-ma, 292, 304. 
to, 371. 

yul. 254, 262, 292, 371. 
Poisoning, 242, 267, 285, 369. 



4o8 



INDEX. 



Polyandry, 155, 177, 193, 268, 283. 




Ranang, 353, 354. 


Polygonum viviparum, 282. 




Rarified air, 203, 204, 205, 207, 213, 222. 


Po-ma, 274, 276, 371. 




Raspberries, 312, 316, 340. 


Pomegranates, 340, 341. 




Rateu, 351, 352, 353. 


Pomundo, 296. 




la, 351. 


Pon ch'u, 269, 270, 277. 




Rdo lung, 82. 


la, 270, 271. 




Rebels, I, 2, 32, 44, 74, 85. 


ta, 269, 270. 




Red haze, 51. 


P'ongdramo, 349, 350. 




Reeds, 43, 45. 


Ponies, 3, 6, 27, 54, 70, 71, 122, 


129, 


Remung-sherab Panaka, 114. 


204, 255, 270, 292, 327, 355, 


359, 


Rerin Panaka, 114, 131, 132, 133. 


371- 




Reservoirs, 54. 


raced, 6, 253. 




Responsibility, collective, 168. 


Poplar trees, 5, 89, 107, 294, 315, 


327, 


Reting gomba, 211. 


334, 339. 354, 363- 




Rhirmo djong, in. 


Poppy, 53, 59, 61. 




Rhododendrons, 299, 310, 332. 


Population, 7, 14, 42, 58, 70, So, 89, 


T14, 


Rhubarb, 43, 90, 124, 136, 171, 270, 275, 


115, 127, 164, 166, 167, 262, 


268, 


277, 278, 280, 297, 303, 311. 


297, 328, 334, 340, 344, 345, 


356, 


Rice, 39, 44, 70, 86, 89. 97, 119, 278. 


358, 363. 




Rishod, 332, 333. 


Pork, 7, 41, 53. 




la. 333- 


Porphyry, 5, 75, 108, 




Ritter mountains, 178. 


Potash, 21. 




Riwoche, 295, 296, 297, 299, 302, 305. 


Potatoes, 36, 48, 90, 321, 326, 360, 


361, 


Rjyakor Panaka, 114. 


364- 




Ro ch'u, 297. 


Potentilla anserina, 66. 




Roads, 192, 213, 214, 224, 254, 255, 257, 


Pottery, 38, 292, 330. 




265, 277, 291, 292, 294, 295, 302, 


Prayer-wheel, 86, 87, 93, 248, 300, 366. 


314, 316, 320, 334, 351. 


Praying, 130, 167, 293, 296. 




Rong-ma, 335, 340. 


Presterjohn, 18, 36. 




wa, 71, 76, 83, 85, 86, 87, 88, 116, 


Printing, 88, 99. 




288, 290, 331, 351. 


Prjevalsky, Col., 27, 29, 32, 34, 36 


>, 38, 


Rose bushes, 312, 361. 


65, 88, 89, 90, 91, 106, no, III 


157, 


Ru ch'u, 287, 288, 291. 


178, 187, 192, 209. 




Rugs, 6, 56, 80. 


P'ulag, 337. 




Rum, 14, 80. 


Pulo, 67, 122, 173, 253, 259. 




Rupees, 104, 253, 259, 260, 275. 


Pungde, 305, 308, 314, 316, 319, 

-7 ■^ o 


327, 


Ruser Panaka, 114. 


332- 
Punishments, 3, loi, 168, 172, 295, 


333. 


Sabokto, 36. 


349, 352. 




Sa-chou, 59, 143, 144, 175. 


Punropa, 369. 




Sa chya djong, 190. 
Sachyapa sect, 340. 


Quartz, 73, 183, 359. 




Sa-tei-go, 9. 


Quern, 24. 




Sachung gomba, 87. 


Quicksands, 120, 196. 




Sacred rock, 305. 
Saddle, 70, 92, 98, 358. 


Ra-dje, 325, 327, 328, 329. 




bags, 224. 


Ra djong, 327. See Ra-dje. 




Safflower, 41. 


Ra-jo la, 77. 




Saffron, 67, 139. 


Radzu-p'o, 82. 




Saga, 299, 311. See Crossoplilons. 


Rafts, 19, 49, 50, 316. 




Sagotong, 287, 291. 


Raids, 172, 175, 186, 188, 196. 




Salar, 62, 66, 67, 71, 74, 76, 77, 79, 80, 


Raisins, 14, 56, 97. 




81, 82, 83, 85, 87, 94, 362. 


Rama ch'u, 279, 281, 282. 




Salaries, 122, 134, 260. 


Ramazan, 79, 136. 




Salt, 76, 104, 108, 109, 119, 130, 173, 


Ramba, 282. See Polygonum 


vivi- 


195, 196, 204, 223, 226. 


pariim. 




Salutation, 65, 88, 102, 240, 241, 280. 


Ramnong ch'u, 282, 283. 




Salwen, 219, 269. 


gang-ri, 279, 280, 282, 284 


285. 


Samarkand, 80. 



INDEX. 



409 



Samda ch'u, 254. 


Shaving, 11, 75, 80. 




San-ch'uan, 64, 100, 106, 107. 


She ch'u, 333, 336, 337, 




San-sheng Kung, 33. See San-tao ho-tzu. 


Sheep, 13, 15, 30, 35, 52, 83, 116, 


122, 


San-tao ch'iao, 321. 


126, 140, 224, 255, 265, 270, 


288, 


San-tao ho-tzu, 23, 27, 28, 31, 32, 33, 34, 


292, 295, 355, 356, 357, 360, 




35, 36, 38, 46. 


Shelakang, 28. 




San-Yen-Tsin, 52. 


Sheldrakes, 120, 124, 142, 174, 197, 


204, 


Sand grouse, 9, 18, 21, 27, 31, 46, 52. 


221. 




Sandal wood tree, 68. 


Shells, 120, 121, 143, 238. 




Sandstone, 4, 37, 47, 5o, 51, 53. 63, 75, 


Shene hoto, 109. 




77, 78, 79, 85, 119, 141, 142, 


Sheng-chin-kuan tien, 47. 




183, 191, 200, 203, 204, 205, 


Shi la, 310, 311. 




207, 209, 210, 211, 213, 218, 


Shigatse, 138, 177, 179. 184, 190, 


197, 


219, 222, 223, 224, 248, 270, 


206, 207, 217, 222, 227, 232, 


237, 


277, 279, 284, 293, 305, 314, 


238, 240, 257, 286, 362. 




359- 


Shih-erh t'eng, i8. 




Conglomerate, 37, 92, 293, 


Shih Fo ssu, 47. 




310, 333- 


Shih-jen-wan, 12. 




Sang Amnye, 167. 


Shih-kung-shih P'u, 47. 




Sangen gol, 167. 


Shih-kung ta ssu, 47. 




Sanghe chakba, 329, 333, 343. 


Shih-pa-erh t'ai, 11. 




Sangyi Tibetans, 252, 255. 


Shih-pan kou, 330. 




Sarlik ula, 165. 


Shih-rung-wa, 9. 




Satokto san-koban, 214. 


Shih ta fan, 107. 




Saussurea tangutica, 323. 


Shiii-tsui- (Shih-tsui-tzCiorShih-tsui shan). 


Savate performance, 70. 


16, 33. 37, 38, 39. 45. 




Sayi la, 123. 


Shire nor, 205, 207. 




Schist, 85, 284. 


Sho, 230, 278, 284, 312. 




Schizopygopsis, 65. 


Shobando, 238, 276, 292, 294, 302, 


303- 


Scythe, 24. 


Shudenge, 167, 169. 




Seldum gol, 143. 


Shugan ula, 182. 




Selling wives, 9. 


Shugu gol, 182. 




Ser-chan t'onbo, 186. 


Shui-mo, 9. 




Seremdo ch'u, 285, 286, 288, 291. 


Shui-mo-k'ou, 343, 344. 




Serkok gomba, 65, 153. 


Shui-pei ho, 54, 55. 




Sha-erh-wan, 74, 79, 81. 


Shuoma Ts'aidam, 161. 




Sha-ho ching, 53. 


Shurtsang Panaka, 114. 




Sha-pa, 49. 


Sickle, 24. 




Shagreen, 362. 


Sikkim, 184, 237, 298, 348. 




Shale, 108, 225. 


Silver, 187, 274. 




Shan-hsi, i, 3, 5, 8, 9, 12, 23, 42, 47, 76. 


smith, 163, 164, 292, 358. 




Shan ken, 344. 


Smging, 87, 91, 168, 335. 




Shan-tung, 42, 76. 


Single-stick, 70. 




Shaner Panaka, 117. 


Sini nor, 121. 




Shang-chia Panaka, 114. 


Slate, 193, 200, 243, 279, 284, 299. 




Shang chia (of Ts'aidam), 114, 124, 127, 


Slings, 264. 




130, 131, 132, 133, 134, 138, 146, 


Smallpox, 235. 




147, 148, 372. 


Smugglers, 76. 




Shanghai, 41, 57, 60, 78, 84, 97. 


Snake, 343. 




Shang-wu chuang, 104, 109, 138. 


Snipe, 174. 




Shang ying-tzu, 39. 


Snow, 27, 28, 40, 42, 75, 91. 107, 


120, 


Shapka Monomakh, 195. 


126, 127, 129, 140, 153, 158, 


164, 


Shar-yong, 261. 


186, 190, 191, 192, 197, 201, 


203, 


Shara gol, 129, 165. 


206, 207, 209, 218, 220, 358. 




Kuiyi daban, 189, 191, 192, 194. 


blindness, 129, 130. 




kuto, 91, 108, 109, no, III, 112, 


line, 209, 219, 220. 




117, 121. 


Snuff, 19, 243. 




tolh'a, 169. 


Soda, 5, 18, 21, 241, 




Sharba, 58, 117, 121. 


Sodzum, 170. 





4IO 



INDEX. 



Soldiers, 13, 42, 76, 302, 303, 317, 318, 

320, 321, 334, 362. 
Solon Manchu, 135, 136. 
Song-chyang sumdo, 26S, 270, 335. 
Sosanang daban, 178, iSo, 186, 187, 18S. 

ula, 178. 
Soup kitchen, 56. 

Sour milk, 19, 230, 278. See sho. 
Soyu lung, 187. 
Sparrows, 336. 

Spear, 70, 84, 109, 130, 292, 328. 
Spindle, 22, 132. 
Spoils of war, 356. 
Spruce trees, 86. 
Squashes, 343, 345. 
Squeezes, 60, 317, 326. 
Ssu-ch'uan, i, 6, 9, 56, 57, 63, 70, 73, 88, 

116, 117, 275, 369. 
Ssii-ke, 86, 89. 
Stainboul, 14. 

Stamping Mohammedans, 75. 
Stars, names of, 152. 
Stealing, 17, 124, 286. 
Stewart, Dr., 13, 14, 15, 16, 17. 
Stilts, 56, 68. 
Stone hammer, 46. 

heaps, 9, 322. See obo. 
images, 47. 
hung on trees, 322. 
Stones on fields, 53, 54, 59, 6r. 
Storehouses, 163, 248, 276. 
Strawberries, 305, 312. 
Styphonolobiuvt japonicunt, 41. 
Su-a-shih, 85. 
Su-chia Panaka, 105, 114, 115, 124, 125, 

127. 
Su-chia tsui, 7. 
Su-chou, 40, 59, 60. 

Su ch'u, 269, 270, 272, 273, 276, 277, 285. 
Suan-huo P'u, 52. 
Subeh mountains, 183. 
Sudwisashan, 38. 
Sumutu, 25. 
Sung bum, the, 99. 
Sung-lin-k'ou, 351. 
Sung-lo zamba, 305. 
Sung-pan T'ing, 58, 73, 88, 117, 321, 

357. 370, 372. 
Superstitions, 133, 136, 137. 138, 139, 

143, 146, 150, 151, 154, 160, 193, 

269, 305. 
Swastika, 67. 
Swings, 53. 
Sword, 70, 84, 242, 260, 32S, 330, 346, 

347- 
Syphilis, 14, 326. 
Syringa viUosa, 68. 



Tabooed words, 160. 

Tabu obo, 191. 

Ta chao, 15. 

Ta Chiang, 209. 

Ta ch'iao, 356. 

Ta-chien-lu, 6, 56, 58, 116, 239, 240, 255, 

257, 262, 263, 273, 287, 289, 303, 

317, 339. 340, 349. 359. 3^3. 365, 

367. 368. 
Ta ch'ing shan, 15. 
Ta-chung-t'an, 31, 32. 
Ta-erh-ko-erh, 14. See Turkey. 
Ta Fo ssii, 47. 
Taga ding, 342. 
Tagur, 173. 
Ta hoba, 115. 
Ta hsia, 62, 63. 
Ta hua-erh, 25. 
T'ai-ling, 371. 

T'ai-ping-ku, 57. See drums. 
T'ai-yuan Fu, 15. 
Ta-kuren. See Urga. 
Ta-la P'u, 53- 
Ta lama, 304. 
Talat Princess, 22. 
Ta-mo ri, 108. 

Tang-ku-tu, 304. See Tangut. 
Ta-p'a, 45. 
Ta-pu ho, 28. 
Ta-nei-k'ai, 106. 
Ta-t'ung Fu, 3, 5. 8, 13, 15, 47. 
Ta-t'ung ho, 57, 62, 106, 159. 
Ta-tzij, 19, 87. See Mongol. 
Ta-yu-shu, 9. 
Taichinar Ts'aidam, 136, 139, 155, 169, 

170, 176, 177, 178. 192, 214. 
Tailor, 10, 155, 268. 
Takelgen ula, 185. 
Taklang or Ta-k'o-lang, 9, 13. 
Talat Mongols, 22, 29, 106. 
Taldi, 29. 
Tale lama, 255. 
Talen-tak ula, 178, 181. 
Tall men, 176, 315, 316, 346. 
Tambourine, 57. 
Tan-kai mao-to, 24, 28, 35. 
Tang-yao shan, 331. 
T'ang yu, 197, 198, 201, 202. 
Tangut, 107. 
Tanka, 253, 259, 291. 
Tankar, 65, 74, 91, 94, 104, no, 113, 

116, 135, 251, 253, 255. 
Tarak, 150, 241, 242, 278. 
Tao-t'ang ho, in, 112. 
Tartung, 301. 
Tashil'unpo, 68, 100, 134, 138, 149, 184, 

230. 
Tashio Panaka, 119. 



INDEX. 



411 



Tasi ch'u, 294. 




Tou Ch'eng, 18. 




Ta-so fang, 350. 




T'ou fang, 355. 




pass, 348. 




To-pa, 56. 




Tator, 185, 186. 




Topa Panaka, 114. 




Tattooing, 58, 67. 




Tore kuo-shili, 178, 181. 




Tatsa Panaka, 114. 




Torgot Mongols, 214, 235. 




Tawo Panaka, 114. 




Torma, 298. 




Taxes, 236. 




Tosu-nor, 112, 121, 124, 136, 138, 


139, 


Taylor, Miss A. R., 257, 273. 




140, 142, 143. 147, 148, 


149. 


Tchagan Kouren, 18. See Ho-k'ou. 




171. 




Tchin-hai Pou, 105. 




Toto, 18, 




Tchogortan, 95. 




Towers, 8, 37, 47, 52, 353, 365, 366. 




Tea, 3, 4, 19- 21, 97, 98, 119. 126, 


153. 


Tra-shi-chyil gomba, 87. 




204, 235, 242, 259, 292, 326, 


348, 


Trade, 14, 15, 28, 44, 50, 51, 56, 59 


,62, 


357. 




71, 90, 98, 134, 135, 172, 


176, 


Tebe, 106. 




231, 241, 254, 255, 259, 280, 


285, 


Telegrapliy, 60, 125. 




306, 326, 334, 345, 351, 357, 


370. 


Tenduc, 18. 




customs, 15, 64, 100, 161, 


162, 


T'eng-k'ou, 16, 23, 35, 36, 39. 




261, 274. 




Tengelik, 161, 166, 170. 




Traps, 18. 




nor, 171. 




Trashiling gomba, 260, 287, 291. 




Tengri nor, 150, 155, 177, 179, 190, 


206, 


Trashi ts'o-nak, 208, 209. 




207, 216, 220, 221, 223, 228, 


229, 


Traze la, 277. 




235. 238, 254, 291. 




lung, 276, 277. 




Tents, 6, 15, 19, 26, 98, 109, 116, 


123, 


Tribute, 134. 




126, 133, 229, 251, 256, 262, 


356. 


Trigu gomba, 331. 




of bark, 361. 




Ts'a-ma shan, 89, 92. 




Teuja, 361. 




Tsa-ma-ra dong, 360. 




Theatre, 28. 




Tsahan bolan. See Chahar bolan. 




Theological school, 7, 99, 100. 




Ch'eng, 112. 




Thieves, 294, 297, 300. 




daban, 187. 




Thorn, 33, 




gol, 162. 




Tibetan, 9, 76, 94, 106, 121, 133, 


229, 


hada, 148. 




234, 304, 315, 327. 




horga, 141. 




Tibetan character, 126, 239, 242, 249, 250, 


kol, 173, 174. 




260, 261, 262, 267, 268, 272, 


274, 


nameha, 178. 




290, 294, 295, 309, 330, 346. 




nor, 29. 




Tieh-li nor, 112. 




obo, 9, 10, 27. 




Tieh-mung, 9. 




ossu, 128, 129, 131, 165. 




Tien-ch'eng ts'un, 9. 




toh'e, 182, 185. 




Tientsin, 2, 32, 64, 78. 




Tsai buei, Secret society of the, 2. 




Ti-ju, 367. 




Ts'aidam, 26, 32, 102, 112, 114, 121, 


T28. 


Tiles, 105, 365, 366. 




129, 132, 135, 136, 161, 212, 268. 


Timber line, 280, 350, 361. 




Ts'ak'a, 224, 352. 




Time reckoning, 35. 




nor, 116, 119, 123, 125, 127 




Tirma, 306. 




Ts'ama-lung, 94. 




Tiru, 367. 




Tsamba, 19, 68. 70, 83, 89, 97, 119, 


126, 


Toba dynasty, 47, 74. 




130, 204, 235, 278, 292, 316. 




Toba, village of, 99, 105, 106, 109. 




Tsampaka, 67. 




Tobacco, 15, 41, 48, 51, 74, 97, 222, 


243. 


Tsan-ma-la-tung, 360, 




253, 258, 275, 321. 




Tsandan karpo, 68, 69. 




Togto, 18. 




Tsang (Ulterior Tibet), 134, 221, 2S6 




Toktomai, 209, 210, 211, 212, 213, 


217, 


gi tsang-po, 190, 286. 




218, 219. 




Ts'ao-yijan P'u, 46. 




Tola, 174. 




Ts'a-pa, 76, 77, 78, 84. 




Toll eken, 173. 




Ts'arong, 254, 289. 




Tolmok Mongols, 109. 




Tsa-tsa, 93, 280. 




Tomta Kung, 29. 




ch'uk'a, 121, 124. 




Tongri ts'o-nak, 112, 142. See Tosu 


nor. 


gol, 128. 





412 



INDEX. 



Tsacha tsang-bo ch'u, 227 


228, 


230, 


238, 


Ulan ula, 208. 




240, 241, 243, 244, 245, 247. 




Ulasutai gol, 166. 




Tsan-pa shan, 351. 








Umeke ula, 187, 191, 192. 




Tse ch'u, 297, 299, 300, 


302, 


305, 


306, 


Unda, 310. 




309. 311- 








Uneven gol, 173. 




Tsega, 272, 273, 276. 








Urga, 4.' 




Tsobo-ch'uk'a, 343. 








Urine as medicine, 104. 




Ts'o-do lung, 142, 143. 












go, 142. 








Vaulting into saddle, 130. 




kadri, 120. 








Vegetarians, 58. 




non-bo, 113. See Koko-nor. 




Vultures, 95, 152. 




Ts'ong-k'a, loi. 












pa, 68, 99. 








Wa-ch'ieh, 366. 




Tsonju, 178. 








Waho la, 300. 




Tsuchi Kun, 82. 








Wahon ch'u, 125, 126, 128. 




Tsung-ta, 355. 








jamkar, 126. 




T'u-fan, 68, 76, 77, 85, 90, 95, 


103, 


107. 


la, 123, 125, 128. 




jen, 62, 64, 65, 71, 


73, 74, li- 


', 77, 


omsa, 125. 




87, 100, 106. 








Wai-kun, 76, 77, 78. 




ssii, 71, 76. 








Walnuts, 340, 341, 342, 344, 347. 




Tu-mu, village of, 4. 








Wan-chuan Hsien, 7. 




Tub-chia Panaka, 114. 








Wan-li clVeng, 94. 




Tufa, 9, II. 








Wan-hu P'u, 44. 




Tugeta, 174. 








Wang Mongols, 29, 




gol, 174. 








Wang-yeh Fu, 38. 




Tulips, 192, 210. 








Wango la, 359. 




Tumba, 116. 








Wangk'a 321. 




Turned Mongols, 14. 








Wangk'a Mongols, 119. 




Tumta Habsere, 215. 








Wangsht'ah'a Panaka, 114. 




Naichi, 185, 188. 








Washing, 154. 




Tola gol, 174. 








Wa-ssu-k'ou, 370. 




Tung-chou, 3, 4. 








Water bottle, 30. 




Tung djung zamba, 305 


See Sung lo 


wheel, 60. 




zamba. 








Watermelons, 90, 345. 




T'ung-kuan, 19. 








Watsema, 366. 




Tung lu, 103. 








Wax, 64. 




T'ung-shih, 86, 117, 122,182,183,302,303. 


Wayen nor, 109, 112, 115, 1x6, 121. 




T'ung-tien river, 137. 








Weaving, 41, 248, 268. 




Tung Wang, 29. 








Wei-ching P'u, 38. 




Tungolo, 365, 366. 








Wei-hsi, 339, 




Tun.uor, 35. 








Wei-Tsaiig Vu chih, 330, 332, 333, 


342, 


Tungor gomba, no. 








354, 359- 




Turbans, 80, 256. 








Wei-yang-chi ti, 30. 




Turfan, 56. 








Wells, 10, 20, 25, 53, 54. 




Turgen ula, 141. 








Wheat, 39, 83, 90, 286, 295, 311, 


3x5, 


Turkestan, 14, 20, 56, 74, 


166, 


263. 




326, 335, 343, 345, 361, 363, 365- 


Turkey, 80. 








Whistling, 20, 248. 




Turki. 76. 








White horse temple, 64. 




Turnips, 283, 285, 290, 29; 


■.303 


3", 


321, 


poney, 150. 




326, 335, 351, 353. 358, 3^ 


I. 




Wickerwork, 7, 18, 54. 




Turquoises, 69, 253. 








Wild asses, 120, 122, 124, 126, 141, 


142, 


Turun, 87. 








145, 185, 186, 187, 190, 194, 


201, 


Tweezers, 125, 234. 








210, 212, 215, 225, 278. 




Typhoid fever, 369. 








goats, 141, 145, 146. 
men, 143, 144. 




Uighurs, 56. 








Willow trees, 7, 9, 12, 17, 18, 20, 25 


,26, 


Ula, 86, 183, 262, 263, 


265, 


304, 


314, 


27, 30, 34, 35, 36. 43. 44, 92, 


162, 


335, 336, 337, 341, 


342, 


347, 


348, 


167. 169, 170, 173, 174. 182, 


183, 


366. 








184, 191, 299, 301, 312, 315, 354, 


363- 



INDEX. 



413 



Wind, 4, 7, II, 36, 42. 48, 51. 59. 64, 70, 

91, 119, 120, 121, 167, 212. 

Wo-lung-shih, 365. 

Wolves, 12. 26, 27, 47, 103, 172, 173, 

177, I98. 311- 
Women, position of, 156, 268, 346. 
Wool, 3, 26, 28, 41, 51, 64, 78, 90, 108, 

275, 370. 
Woolen stuff, 56, 60. 
Wrestling, 70. 
Wu-la ho, 32. 

shan, 15, 16, 23, 25, 26, 27. 
Wu-li-pa, 12. 
Wu-ta-ku, 31. 
Wushun, 20, 29. 
Wutushin Panaka, 114. 

Ya-chou Fu, 369, 372. 

Yadro, 326. 

Ya-dza k'uar, 78. 

Ya-lung Chiang, 363. 

Yagara, 158, 196, 249. 
ch'u, 251. 

Yaks, 102, 104, 105, 109, 116, 118, 119, 
124, 126, 128, 129, 130, 131, 142, 
145, 153. 190, 193. 199. 200, 204, 
205, 210, 212, 215, 219. 221, 245, 
255, 264, 265, 270, 2ao, 288, 355, 

356, 359- 
Yalawach, Si. 

Yufig ko kii, 56, 59. See drums. 
Yang ho, 7, », 9. 

Yang-tzii kiang, 209. See Dre ch'u. 
Yangamdo, 281. 



Yangyu Panaka, 114. 

Yaokatse, 359. 

Yar Sok, 159. 

Yaru tsangpo, 190, 207, 286. 

Yasho-santo Panaka, 114. 

Yeh-niu shan, ic8, iii. 

Yeh-sheng P'u, 45. 

Yellow River, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 21, 22, 
23. 24, 25, 26, 27, 34, 35, 36, 37, 39, 
40, 43, 45, 46, 48, 49, 50, 52, 55, 60, 
61, 66, 78, 79, 83, 84, 87, 91, 92, 106, 
no, 113, 115, 116, 117, 118, 121, 

127. 175- 
Yen-te fang, 328. 
Yerkalo, 352. 
Yin shan, 36. 
Ying pan, 112, 116. 

shui, 51, 52. 
Yirna ts'o, 228, 241. 
Yo-mu Mongols, 14. 
Yogore gol, 132, 133, 139, 140, 141, 142, 

145- 
Yii-lin Fu, 26. 
Yiian-pao, 260. 
Yun-nan, i, 54, 339, 341. 
Yung ch'u, 322, 323. 
Yung-k'an, 47. 
Yung-shan chuang, 9. 
Yiisa, 323. 

Zamba fang, 350. 

Ze-chi zamba, 321. 

Ze cii'u, 288, 290, 293, 294, 296, 297. 

Zuunda la, 360, 361. 



i 



I 



rf 



